The Latest: Trump is in Saudi Arabia on the first leg of his 4-day Mideast trip
By The Associated Press
President Donald Trump was in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the first leg of his three-nation visit to the Middle East this week meant to tackle multiple crises and conflicts across the region.
He was welcomed by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, after Air Force One landed in Riyadh. Trump and the crown prince are to hold talks on U.S. efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program, end the war in Gaza, hold down oil prices and more.
Trump is also expected to be feted by the crown prince with a formal dinner and a gathering of members of the Gulf Cooperation Council — made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — later on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Trump’s special envoy for the Mideast Steve Witkoff has been involved in efforts to free the hostages still held in Gaza.
Here’s the Latest:
Cheaper gas prices a boon for Trump
Saudi Arabia and fellow OPEC+ nations have already helped their cause with Trump by stepping up oil production. Trump sees cheap energy as key to lowering costs and stemming inflation for Americans, and to hastening an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
But Saudi Arabia’s economy remains heavily dependent on oil, and the kingdom needs a fiscal break-even oil price of $96 to $98 a barrel to balance its budget. How long OPEC+ will keep production elevated — Brent crude closed Monday at $64.77 a barrel — is questionable.
“One of the challenges for the Gulf states of lower oil prices is it doesn’t necessarily imperil economic diversification programs, but it certainly makes them harder,” said Jon Alterman, a senior Middle East analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Trump says he and Saudi crown prince like each other “a lot”
Trump offered the assessment as he and Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader held talks at the Royal Court in Riyadh.
He called Mohammed bin Salman a friend and said they’d developed a good relationship. He spoke about visiting Saudi Arabia in 2017 on the first foreign trip of his first term in office.
Trump has said he decided to make Saudi Arabia his first official overseas stop again because of the kingdom’s promise to invest $600 billion in the United States — and then he joked that the Saudis could bump it up to $1 trillion.
“I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump said.
US officials tell families of Israeli hostages they will accept nothing less than everyone’s return
Witkoff and the Trump administration’s envoy for hostage affairs have told the families of hostages still held in Gaza that they will do what is needed to bring everyone home.
The two officials are next traveling to Qatar to join Trump there. Qatar has been a key mediator during the 19-month Israel-Hamas war.
Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy, said they wouldn’t be traveling to Qatar if they didn’t think there was a genuine chance for progress in negotiations.
Freed American-Israeli hostage says he feels weak but is OK
Edan Alexander has spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It’s crazy. It’s unbelievable,” Alexander said about his freedom in remarks released by Netanyahu’s office.
Asked how he feels, Alexander answered: “Ok, weak, but slowly we’ll get back to what we were before.”
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff then got on the call and Netanyahu expressed his gratitude to the U.S. president for helping to free Alexander.
Witkoff also said, in a post on X, that Trump spoke with Alexander, and remains committed to bringing home all of the hostages.
There were reports Alexander was going to meet Trump in Qatar this week but a statement from the hostage forum, which represents the families, said he won’t be flying there. The family is in continuous contact with the Trump administration, it said.
Netanyahu says there is ‘no way’ Israel will halt its war in Gaza as Trump tours Mideast
The Israeli prime minister says that any ceasefire deal with Hamas would be temporary.
Netanyahu’s statement came ahead of Trump’s visit to the Middle East, which did not include a stop in Israel.
Netanyahu said that if Hamas were to say it would release more hostages, “we’ll take them, and then we’ll go in. But there will be no way we will stop the war.”
Israel says 58 hostages remain in captivity, with about 23 of them said to be alive.
Trump’s trip is part of a bid to bring international business back to Saudi Arabia
For Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Tuesday’s visit by President Donald Trump caps what’s been a series of major events to bring the kingdom back into the embrace of international business.
Businessmen thronged to a Saudi investment forum, a stark contrast to what happened after the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was slain by a Saudi hit squad at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
Meanwhile, the Saudi-led war in Yemen, which saw civilian casualties in their airstrikes, has faded into the background as the kingdom has sought a peace deal there and a detente with Iran, their regional rival.
Instead, the world’s media has crowded into the kingdom and broadcast images of the crown prince, smiling, greeting Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk. Meanwhile, the kingdom will host the FIFA 2034 World Cup, which will draw more attention here.
Trump called Mohammed bin Salman a friend and said they’d developed a good relationship. He spoke about visiting Saudi Arabia in 2017 on the first foreign trip of his first term in office.
Trump has said he decided to make Saudi Arabia his first official overseas stop again because of the kingdom’s promise to invest $600 billion in the United States. He joked Tuesday that they could bump it up to $1 trillion.
“I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump said.
Trump’s Mideast envoy meets families of Israeli hostages
The U.S. special Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff met privately with families of the hostages in Tel Aviv’s Hostage’s Square on Tuesday.
Witkoff said he met with Edan Alexander, the Israeli-American soldier released on Monday, and that he was an “incredibly resilient young man.”
Hamas released Alexander who had been held hostage in Gaza for more than 19 months, offering a goodwill gesture toward Trump that could lay the groundwork for a new ceasefire.
Witkoff said negotiations for a more lasting ceasefire have begun, and that he hopes more hostages could be released soon. “We’re working on it,” he said.
Dozens of people stood in the Square and chanted “Bring them home now!”
Witkoff also spoke with and embraced Ruby Chen, whose Israeli-American son, Itay Chen, was abducted to Gaza and later pronounced dead. His body is still held in Gaza.
Trump starts his foreign trip with a crush of problems — and outsized certainty he has the answers
Trump had intended to use his four-day trip to press wealthy Gulf Arab nations to pour billions in new investment into the U.S. But now he finds himself navigating a series of geopolitical crises — and searching for glimmers of hope in the deep well of global turmoil — that are casting greater import on the first extended overseas trip of his second term.
“This world is a lot safer today than it was a week ago,” Trump crowed to reporters on Monday as he sized up the foreign policy challenges he’s facing. “And a lot safer than it was six months ago.”
The president was brimming with an overabundance of confidence about some of the world’s most intractable problems, from tensions in South Asia to the future of sanctions in Syria to the war in Ukraine.
But behind closed doors, the Saudi crown prince, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim al-Thani, and Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed will be looking to get a bead on how Trump intends to push ahead on resolving the war in Gaza, dealing with Iran’s rapidly progressing nuclear program and addressing India-Pakistan tensions.
▶ Read more about the geopolitical crises Trump is facing with his first trip
An Israeli strike on a hospital in the Gaza Strip kills a journalist targeted earlier
Hassan Eslaiah, who was targeted in an earlier strike, has been described by Israel as a Hamas militant posing as a journalist. Israel says he took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. He and another individual were killed in the overnight strike, according to Nasser Hospital. Eslaiah was at the facility receiving treatment from severe burns from the earlier strike, Dr. Ahmed Alfarra said.
Israel said it struck militants who were operating inside the hospital, without identifying them.
An Israeli strike just outside the hospital in April set a media tent ablaze and killed two people, including a local reporter. Eslaiah was among six other journalists who were wounded in that strike. The Israeli military said Eslaiah was the target.
Eslaiah had occasionally contributed images to The Associated Press and other international media outlets as a freelance journalist, including on Oct. 7. The AP has not worked with him for over a year.
Saudi investment minister praises US-Saudi relations
Khalid al-Falih spoke at a Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum ahead of Trump’s arrival in Riyadh.
“Our bilateral relationship is one of the world’s most significant geostrategic bonds, with economic cooperation and business partnerships at its core, and serves as a force for peace and global prosperity,” he said.
He reiterated a pledge by the Saudi crown prince to see investment in the U.S. of $600 billion over the next four years.
Airport greeting by Saudi crown prince a rare honor for US presidents
Saudi crown prince’s airport greeting for Trump underscores the close relationship the de facto ruler of the kingdom wants to have with the American leader.
Typically, a provincial governor or another official will greet a foreign leader on arrival. King Salman once greeted President Barack Obama at the airport on a trip to the kingdom, but then lower-ranking officials did as the kingdom grew angry over his stance on the 2011 Arab Spring and the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
President Joe Biden also was greeted by a provincial governor on his 2022 trip to the kingdom, before having an awkward fist-bump with Prince Mohammed, who he derided as a “pariah” during his election campaign after the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Treasury secretary says US, China have a ‘mechanism’ to avoid tensions
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that America and China now have a “mechanism” to avoid tensions.
He spoke at an investment forum just before Trump was to land in Saudi Arabia.
“We had a plan, we had a process. What we did not have with the Chinese was a mechanism,” Bessent told the forum. “After this weekend, we have a mechanism to avoid escalation like we had before.”
Bessent said America could have a “big, beautiful rebalancing” with China as Beijing aims to have more of a consumption-based economy and Trump wants to see more precision manufacturing done in the U.S.
Iran is mostly quiet about Trump’s trip as it negotiates with US over the nuclear program
Previous trips by U.S. presidents to the kingdom have drawn comments about Saudi Arabia being “milked” by the Americans for oil and dollars for military sales.
But this time, Iranian newspapers and state television largely are not discussing Trump’s trip in detail.
The quiet may be due to the fact Riyadh and Tehran have been in a Chinese-mediated detente since 2023. Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, a brother to the Saudi crown prince, also traveled to Tehran in a high-level visit unthinkable in recent years of tensions between the two Mideast rivals.
Hussein Ibish, an analyst at the Washington-based Arab Gulf States Institute, said Saudi Arabia’s economic development projects at home means the kingdom wants peace across the region.
Saudi Arabia has prepared
for Trump’s arrival
American and Saudi flags lined the streets in Saudi Arabia’s capital ahead of Trump’s arrival, along with a noticeable security presence in Riyadh of all American-made police cars.
At a “Media Oasis” set up for journalists, giant video screens showed off Saudi construction projects like its futuristic NEOM city and its hosting of the 2034 FIFA World Cup. A mobile McDonald’s sat in the parking lot, still shuttered.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, who led Saudi intelligence for more than two decades and served as ambassador to the U.S. and Britain, wrote in the English-language Arab News newspaper to Trump that “our doors and hearts are open to you.”
Tightly controlled Saudi media outlets express hope for Trump visit
Saudi Arabia’s tightly controlled media offered positive comments regarding Trump’s visit. Columnists in the kingdom sought to describe the visit as part of a strategic reset in American-Saudi relations, which date back to when then-President Franklin Roosevelt met King Saud aboard the USS Quincy in 1945.
“Many countries around the world, including in Europe, are following Saudi Arabia’s lead in managing their affairs with Trump,” wrote Abdulrahman al-Rashed in Asharq Al-Awsat. “The era of relying solely on political and military alliances with Washington is over; the focus now is on forging shared interests.”
Faisal J. Abbas of the English-language Arab News wrote that “the significance of the visit cannot be overstated — nor could its timing be more crucia,” given Saudi Arabia’s mediation in the Russia-Ukraine war and the recent conflict between India and Pakistan.
He also acknowledged business deals would be part of the trip as well.
“Putting America first does not mean ignoring opportunities abroad; it means seizing them,” Abbas added.
Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia comes as oil trades around $64 a barrel
Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia comes as the president can already point to one thing for American voters — oil prices are down.
It’s not Trump’s doing, though he’s repeatedly criticized Saudi Arabia and the OPEC+ oil cartel over higher oil prices in the past. Those prices translate directly back into gasoline prices in the United States, which can become a major pain point for the U.S. public. The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. is $3.13, according to AAA, down from $3.61 a year ago.
Right now, benchmark Brent crude trades around $64 a barrel. That’s higher than when the around $50 a barrel it traded on his first trip to the kingdom as president in 2017. However, it’s nowhere near the spikes seen after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Then, the average gallon of gas in the U.S. was $5.01 at its height.
Economic uncertainty over Trump’s tariff policy has depressed global energy prices — as has OPEC more rapidly opening up production than initially thought. Saudi Arabia in particular needs that extra revenue as the crow prince’s expansive development plans and the kingdom hosting the upcoming 2034 FIFA World Cup will need hundreds of billions of dollars of investments.
Syria welcomes Trump’s statements on mulling the removal of sanctions
The Syrian Foreign Ministry says the sanctions on the country were imposed under the government of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and helped in removing him from power.
But they are now harming the Syrian people, the ministry says, describing Trump’s comments about removing them as “an encouraging step” to end the suffering of Syrians.
The ministry said in a statement late Monday that the sanctions are hindering reconstruction in the war torn country.
The Syrian people are looking for the “full lifting of the sanctions” as a step that boosts peace and prosperity both in Syria and the region, and open the way for international cooperation, it said.
