President Donald Trump’s meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman couldn’t have been glitzier and more ostentatious. Seven years ago, the crown prince was persona non-grata in much of the West, castigated as a brutal tyrant who was waging a merciless, unproductive war in Yemen and who likely approved the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist who often wrote critically of MBS’ leadership.
Those days are long gone. Today, the 40-year-old crown prince was greeted by Trump on the White House portico as the de facto head of one of the world’s largest crude oil producers and chief authorizer to $1 trillion in Saudi investments. Trump treated the crown prince as not only a visiting dignitary, but also a man who needed protection from those pesky U.S. journalists who dared to ask Crown Prince Mohammed about his controversial track record.
As if to underscore their personal bond, Trump and the crown prince both referred to each other as good friends. Saudi Arabia, Trump told reporters, was “a great ally” that deserved state-of-the-art U.S. weaponry, such as the stealth F-35 fighter aircraft. Shortly thereafter, Trump designated Saudi Arabia a so-called major non-NATO ally—a distinction some of Riyadh’s other Persian Gulf partners, including Qatar and Bahrain, also hold.
There’s only one problem: None of what Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed are saying is true. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia aren’t allies, have never been allies and are unlikely to be allies in the future. While Saudi Arabia’s new designation may refute that conclusion, even this new status is less than meets the eye. No new U.S. security commitments are on offer. At most, Saudi Arabia will now be granted greater access to U.S. defense loans and faster deliveries of U.S. weapons.
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