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Regional states are looking to the Kingdom to “rein in” incoming US President Donald Trump, with concerns mounting as Trump continues to pick staunchly pro-Israeli “Iran hawks” for his new administration’s lineup, the Financial Times says. Arab officials hope that Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman can leverage his positive relationship with the president-elect, as well as Trump’s aspirations for lucrative financial agreements with the Kingdom and ambitions for a normalization accord between Saudi Arabia and Israel to moderate the new president’s support for policies and proposals floated by Netanyahu’s extremist government.
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ICYMI- Trump described the Crown Prince as a “friend” and a “visionary” in a pre-election interview with Al Arabiya last month. He also stressed that the extension of the Abraham Accords to include a normalization framework between Saudi Arabia and Israel was top on his post-election priorities for the region. Meanwhile, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s private equity firm Affinity Partners has investment ties with PIF, while Trump Organization also has real estate ambitions in Saudi and the GCC.
