SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Michael Birnbaum and Matt Viser
Washington: US President Donald Trump plans to leave on Monday, Washington time, for a four-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, a mission that is expected to focus heavily on business deals and new investments from the oil-rich region.
The swing through deep-pocketed Middle East monarchies, Trump’s first major international travel of his second term, is a marker of the president’s priorities and another sign of his intention to de-emphasise the traditional US allies that typically serve as the first foreign destinations for new presidents. It also reflects his affection for the region, its wealth and the pageantry that the host countries plan to roll out for him.
The visit comes amid a sweep of pressing regional security concerns, including the fate of Gaza, Iran’s nuclear program and Trump’s long-held goal of brokering a deal that would normalise relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. The Gaza war has thrown the region into tumult, leaving Iran and its proxies at their weakest in recent memory and creating an unusual moment in which power balances could shift.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (left) meets Donald Trump in Riyadh in 2017. He was the first foreign leader to speak to the US president after his inauguration. Credit: AP
White House aides said security issues would not be central during the 3½ days Trump would be on the ground, a testament to the president’s more restrained vision for the role of the United States in the world and his tight focus on business deals and investments that could boost him with his base back home. Unusually, Trump does not plan to visit Israel during the trip despite its proximity, a snub to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A different US administration might treat the region with an alternative approach, following 19 months in which Israel has dealt major blows to Hamas and Hezbollah, the regional groups Iran has used to project power towards its neighbours. Israeli leaders had hoped to use the moment to partner with the US in a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program, US intelligence assessments said.
Trump, for now, has batted away such talk, seeking a diplomatic deal with Tehran to place limits on the nuclear program, with potential parameters that seem similar to the 2015 agreement struck by then-US president Barack Obama. Trump abandoned that deal in his first term.
“There is a real opportunity here, but the Trump administration in no way, shape or form wants to push it because it’s not interested in reshaping the region,” said Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “And so it’s perfectly willing to cut deals with the Iranians, thereby extending the life of the regime.”
Trump also made Saudi Arabia the first foreign destination of his first term, in 2017. But he continued on to Israel and Europe to visit partners that had deeper and older alliances with Washington.
The trip follows in the footsteps of the president’s son, Eric Trump, who, with his brother, leads the Trump Organisation. He visited Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in recent weeks to preside over deals involving the Trump family’s real estate and cryptocurrency ventures. Those deals included investors tied to governments there, a blurring of Trump family business interests with US foreign policy. The White House has said the president no longer plays a role in the Trump Organisation and is making financial sacrifices to be president.
“President Trump will return to re-emphasise his continued vision for a proud, prosperous and successful Middle East where the United States and Middle Eastern nations are in co-operative relationship and where extremism is defeated in place of commerce and cultural exchanges,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Friday.
Trump made an impromptu overnight trip to Italy last month for the funeral of Pope Francis, but the Middle East visit was planned as the first international trip of his second term.
Persian Gulf monarchies can offer lavish displays of pomp and spectacle, and Trump’s hopscotch from Riyadh to Doha to Abu Dhabi is expected to be full of both. In 2017, Trump, along with Saudi King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, placed his hands on a glowing orb in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Later, there was a traditional sword dance.
Eight years later, there is likely to be just as much celebration, before Trump heads to a summit of leaders of the Gulf Co-operation Council. A Saudi-US business conference will take place elsewhere in Riyadh during the trip.
“The focus of this trip is business. It’s economics. That tells you something,” said Richard Haass, a veteran diplomat and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. “It’s revealing about this administration that it’s the first administration in the modern era to approach the world largely in economic and business terms rather than strategic or diplomatic terms.”
Even the selection of Saudi Arabia as the first destination this year seemed to come down to a highest-bidder approach, as Trump challenged the Saudi government to increase its investment in the US in exchange for the coveted visit.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was the first foreign leader to speak to Trump after his inauguration. In that call, he told the president that the Saudis would invest at least $US600 billion ($933 billion) in the US over the next four years. Trump said he wanted them to “round out” that promise to $US1 trillion, and he suggested that if they did, he would make the country his first foreign stop as president.
“They’ve agreed to do that, so I’m going to be going there,” he said a few weeks later, though the details remain vague, and claims of Saudi investments during his first term yielded fewer jobs and cash than Trump said they would at the time. “I have a great relationship with them, and they’ve been very nice, but they’re going to be spending a lot of money to American companies for buying military equipment and a lot of other things.”
Netanyahu, meanwhile, won’t get a face-to-face visit in Israel, something that won’t play well for him domestically, where he has portrayed himself as an essential bridge to the US. One senior White House official said there was no need for a conversation because Netanyahu had already visited Washington “700 times” since Trump’s inauguration, a comment that appeared to reflect some West Wing fatigue with the Israeli leader. Netanyahu has actually visited just twice. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk freely about strategy around the travel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has visited the White House just twice this term.Credit: AP
During the trip, top US business executives will also visit Riyadh to take part in a Saudi-US Investment Forum. Those expected to attend include BlackRock’s chairman and chief executive, Larry Fink; Citigroup chief executive Jane Fraser; and IBM’s chairman, president and CEO, Arvind Krishna.
While Trump’s focus is on business, regional leaders are sure to press him on Gaza and other hot topics, even if bigger steps may not immediately be in the offing.
Arab leaders think Trump has given Netanyahu free rein to expand his assault on Gaza. US officials have been seeking countries willing to take in Gazan refugees – a step many Arab nations fear could pave the way for a complete Israeli takeover of the territory, eliminating its status as Palestinian.
During his first term, Trump oversaw mediation between Israel and several Arab countries, normalising relations under agreements called the Abraham Accords. The Biden administration pursued a similar arrangement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, but that stalled after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, prompting Israel to unleash a ferocious response against Gaza.
The Saudi government has wanted assistance from Washington for its civilian nuclear program, and it has long sought expanded defence co-operation too. US diplomats have floated those concessions as carrots in exchange for Riyadh’s normalisation of relations with Israel, but Saudi demands for a pathway to a Palestinian state are likely to keep a Saudi-Israel deal out-of-reach for now. Some Trump officials have raised the possibility of moving forward with the US side of an agreement in exchange for economic concessions or promises of future movement towards Israel.
Another topic that will probably arise is Iran. Trump’s administration has started direct negotiations to curb the country’s ambitions for nuclear weapons. Trump also recently announced that the US military would stop its bombing of the Iran-backed Houthis, a militant group in Yemen that has been attacking shipping in the Red Sea ever since the Hamas attack on Israel, in exchange for protection for US ships.
“I think far and away the most important, acute issue is Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” said Michael O’Hanlon, director of research in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. “These countries have a lot of interest in that and could offer Iran inducements for a deal that Trump wants but needs to grease in some way, like promised investments. That would be going for the home run.”
The trip comes just as Trump’s family business expands into some of the same areas where the president will be travelling. Over the past week, the Trump Organisation has announced new projects that include a large hotel and tower in Dubai and a golf course outside Doha.
The projects are moving forwards in partnership with Dar Global, a real estate firm that is also partnering with the Trump Organisation on other projects in Saudi Arabia.
The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Dubai, which was announced on April 30, is to occupy 80 floors and contain a members-only club “set to redefine the meaning of exclusive luxury”, marketing materials say. The Trump International Golf Course outside Doha, announced on May 1, will include an 18-hole course, a clubhouse and high-end villas with access to the beach.
That project is part of a development overseen by Qatari Diar, a real estate authority run by the Qatari government. The Trump Organisation had pledged not to enter into any new agreements with foreign governments while Trump is in office.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organisation said that its agreement was with Dar Global only and that the Trump Organisation “has no affiliation, partnership or engagement with Qatari Diar or any other agency of the State of Qatar”.
Asked at a White House briefing on Friday whether Trump’s businesses would profit from the trip, Leavitt said: “It’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit. He left a life of luxury and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service.”
She added: “This is a president who has actually lost money for being president of the United States.”
The Washington Post
