Read original article by David Hearst on the Middle East Eye or read just some of the key points below;
- “The price tag of an audience with Donald Trump is high, and rising. By Friday Saudi Arabia had stumped up deals and options worth $300bn over the next decade and $40bn in infrastructure investment. By the time Trump landed in Riyadh that figure reached $460bn in contracts and options alone. The final figure, according to some on Wall Street, could yet rise to $1 trillion of investment in the US economy.”
- “There are two possible reasons why the kingdom is prepared to shower their richer American cousins with more riches. The first is a personal one. Mohammed bin Salman is paying a king’s ransom, or at least he sincerely hopes it will be. Long gone are the days when gifts of state were modest. One of the exhibits in the museum of the founder of the kingdom, King Abdul Aziz ibn Saudi, in Riyadh is a modest desk that President Franklin D Roosevelt gave him after their first meeting on board a US destroyer. He also got one of the US president’s two wheelchairs. These days a desk or a wheelchair would be an insult, compared to the kickback for an arms contract.”
- “The second is a collective reason. The kingdom got such a shock from an Obama administration which made peace with Iran its main objective, that it never wants to feel exposed to the desert winds again. Saudi Arabia is paying protection money even for arms it is never likely to use.”
- “Let us just play a mind game. Let us imagine that, instead of opposing the Arab Spring and the popular uprisings of 2011, Saudi Arabia decided to invest and develop the Arab world. Let us imagine that the House of Saud put $340bn into backing the results of free elections in Egypt, and Libya and Yemen, instead of backing military coups and counter-revolutions. Where would the House of Saud and the Arab world be now? It would not be plain sailing. The first rulers to come to power after dictatorship would long since have been kicked out, but at least a tradition would have been established to use the ballot box rather than the bullet to do so.”
- “What is taking place in the region today is a history lesson for slow learners. Trump is looking forward to the welcome he will get in Riyadh, a distraction from the storm clouds gathering at home. But his administration is looking, even to Republican eyes, as one that is spiralling downwards. As it is, 56 Muslim and Arab leaders will gather in Riyadh to listen to Trump giving them a lecture on democracy and preach to them about Islam. What a strange world we live in.”
