U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on Tuesday, focusing on arms deals, nuclear cooperation, while downplaying questions about the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The controversy over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and U.S.-based critic of the Saudi leadership, flared again in the Oval Office in front of cameras.
The kingdom's de facto ruler was making his first White House visit in more than seven years, seeking to further rehabilitate his global image tarnished by the incident.
"A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about, whether you like him or didn't like him," Trump told reporters, with bin Salman sitting beside him. "Things happened, but he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that."
Bin Salman said it had been "painful" to hear about Khashoggi's death but that his government "did all the right steps of investigation."
"We've improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that. And it's painful and it's a huge mistake," he told reporters.
Arms sales, civil nuclear agreement
Trump said he received a "positive response" about the prospects for Saudi Arabia normalising ties with Israel.
But the crown prince made clear that while he wanted to join the Abraham Accords, he was sticking to his condition that Israel must provide a path to Palestinian statehood, which it has refused to do.
During a dinner at the White House later on Tuesday, Trump said he was "taking our military cooperation to even greater heights" by designating Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO Ally, a status that provides a U.S. partner with military and economic privileges but does not entail security commitments.
A White House fact sheet said the two sides signed a Strategic Defence Agreement, which "fortifies deterrence across the Middle East," makes it easier for U.S. defence firms to operate in the country.
The dinner also included Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Portugal’s soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
The White House announced Trump had approved future deliveries of F-35 fighter jets and the Saudis had agreed to purchase 300 American tanks.
The two countries also signed a joint declaration on the completion of negotiations on civil nuclear energy cooperation, which the White House said would build the legal foundation for a long-term nuclear energy partnership.
Crown Prince boosts investment pledge
Sitting next to Trump, bin Salman promised to increase his country's U.S. investment to $1 trillion from a $600 billion pledge he made when Trump visited Saudi Arabia in May. But he offered no details or timetable.
The two sides also signed a memorandum of understanding on artificial intelligence and a framework for collaboration on critical minerals, the White House said.
A $1 trillion investment in the U.S. would be difficult for Saudi Arabia to pull together given its heavy spending on an already-ambitious series of massive projects at home, including futuristic megacities that have gone over budget, according to experts.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned to the South American nation almost a year after she secretly left the countr...
Uzbekistan summoned Iran’s ambassador following claims by several Iranian diplomatic missions that the historical and architectural heri...
Kazakhstan marks Republic Day on 25 October with an ambitious economic agenda and a growing partnership with Azerbaijan, as the two Caspian neighbo...
Around 11,000 people joined a demonstration in Orléans on Saturday against the National Rally congress, according to the local prefecture.
Typhoon Champi swept past Taiwan on Saturday, leaving one person dead and more than 500 injured as strong winds and torrential rain brought down trees, cut power and disrupted transport across the island.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday described a deadly shooting in the towns of Trappes and La Verrière, west of Paris, as a racist attack and ‘a turning point’ for the country.
Israeli forces have maintained a tight closure on Hebron in the occupied West Bank for a second day, with Palestinian media reporting home raids, mass detentions and dozens of residents forced outside following a shooting incident the day before.
Foreign ministers meeting in Istanbul on Friday warned that renewed military strikes on Iran could deepen the regional conflict, urging diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has returned to the South American nation almost a year after she secretly left the country to travel to Norway for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.
Riot police fired tear gas at protesters in France’s largest cities and more than 1,300 people were arrested during demonstrations against the rising cost of living on Saturday (24 October). Police also used a water cannon on a group of around 500 hooded youths in Paris, after the main rally ended.
Ukraine's military has been hit this month by restrictions on Starshield, the military version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite communications system. Its receivers stopped functioning when mounted on fast-moving objects such as drones, jeopardising some combat and air defence missions.
At least five people were killed and several others injured in overnight attacks across Russia and Ukraine on Sunday, 25 October, as officials reported strikes on residential areas and industrial facilities, while Moscow claimed to have targeted logistics infrastructure and a cargo vessel.
Protests against war and rising living costs took place in major Italian cities on Saturday, with some incidents of violence and clashes, a week after unrest erupted across the country.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment