At a recent Saudi Arabia-backed investment forum, US President Donald Trump sparked an awkward moment for Saudi officials when he appeared to mock Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his address. Trump said officials should tell the Crown Prince to 'be nice' to him, before using a crude remark suggesting that the Saudi leader had underestimated him.
“He did not think this was going to happen. He didn't think he would be kissing my a**… he thought I would be just another American president of a country going downhill. But now he has to be nice to me,” Trump said in comments that have since gone viral.
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He later struck a more conciliatory tone, describing Mohammed bin Salman as a 'smart' and a ‘regular kind of a guy’ and adding that perceptions of the US had improved significantly under his leadership.
“But you know he (Crown Prince Salman) is a smart, a very regular kind of a guy. He said an year ago, you were a dead country and now you are literally the hottest coutry anywhere in the world. And that was before we beat the hell out of Iran,” said Trump.
The forum where Trump spoke draws business leaders and political figures and is organized by a group affiliated with Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion Public Investment Fund with the aim of promoting investment opportunities in the kingdom.
‘Middle East soon to get free from Iran’
{{/usCountry}}The forum where Trump spoke draws business leaders and political figures and is organized by a group affiliated with Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion Public Investment Fund with the aim of promoting investment opportunities in the kingdom.
‘Middle East soon to get free from Iran’
{{/usCountry}}Trump also said that the US is very close to finally freeing the Middle East from the terrorist regime of Iran. This comment comes a day after he extended the deadline for talks with Iran, also delaying plans to strike the country’s power infrastructure until April 6.
“We’re closer than ever to the rise of the Middle East that is finally free, at last, from Iranian terror aggression and nuclear blackmail,” he said, according to Bloomberg. “For 47 years, Iran has been known as the bully of the Middle East, but they are not the bully any longer. They’re on the run.”
“We saved not just Israel, we saved the Middle East and it was proven by all those rockets that fired down upon you. Saudi Arabia got hit a lot,” Trump added, citing retaliatory drone and missile strikes from Iran on Gulf allies.
Notably, Trump’s crude remarks about Crown Prince Salman at a public forum came just days after a New York Times report claimed that Saudi Arabia has been in constant contact with the US, urging it to continue strikes on Iran and describing the conflict as a ‘historic opportunity’ to reshape the region.
At the same time, the war with Iran has placed Saudi Arabia in a precarious position. The kingdom is among Gulf nations facing retaliatory threats from the Islamic Republic. Iranian strikes have reportedly targeted key Saudi energy infrastructure, including the Ras Tanura refinery and the Shaybah oil field, which has a production capacity of around one million barrels of crude per day.