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US President Donald Trump heads for Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Monday, eyeing big business deals even as accords on the Middle East’s hotspots will be harder to seal.While Israel’s war in Gaza and Iran’s nuclear program will loom large over Trump’s first major foreign trip of his second term, the White House said he looked forward to a “historic return” to the region.Eight years ago Trump also chose Riyadh for his first overseas trip as president — when he memorably posed over a glowing orb with the leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.His decision to once more bypass traditional Western allies to visit the oil-rich Gulf states underscores their increasingly pivotal geopolitical role — as well as his own business ties there.”It’s hard for me to escape the idea that President Trump is going to the Gulf because this is his happy place,” said Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.”His hosts will be generous and hospitable. They’ll be keen to make deals. They’ll flatter him and not criticize him, and they’ll treat his family members as past and future business partners.”- ‘Historic return’ -Riyadh, Doha and Abu Dhabi are expected to pull out all the stops for Trump, who’s making his first major overseas trip after briefly attending the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome.The wealthy Arab states will mix pomp and ceremony for the 78-year-old billionaire with deals that could span defense, aviation, energy and artificial intelligence.”The president looks forward to embarking on his historic return to the Middle East” to promote a vision where “extremism is defeated in place of commerce and cultural exchanges,” spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Friday.But he will not be able to avoid the long list of regional crises, including the war in Gaza, the Huthi rebels in Yemen and Syria’s post-Assad turmoil.The Gulf states have played a key diplomatic role under Trump 2.0. Qatar has been a major broker between Hamas and Israel while Saudi Arabia has facilitated talks on the war in Ukraine.”Trump is coming to the Gulf first because this region has become a geopolitical and financial center of gravity,” Anna Jacobs, non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told AFP.In Riyadh, Trump will meet the leaders of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.But one place that is not on the itinerary is Israel, the United States’ closest ally in the region. That has sparked speculation about tensions between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Israel has set Trump’s trip as the deadline for a ceasefire deal with Hamas before launching its plan for the “conquest” of Gaza and the displacement of most Palestinians there.Trump has however taken an increasingly hands-off approach, although the United States says it is working with Israel on a US-led plan to get aid into the blockaded enclave.Efforts to get Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel, which Trump also sought during his first term, are likely to stay on the backburner as Riyadh says it first needs to see progress towards a Palestinian state.- ‘Monetizing MAGA’ -Iran will meanwhile also be high on the agenda. Washington and Tehran will hold the latest round of indirect talks on Iran’s nuclear program in Oman on Sunday.Iran has also reacted furiously after Trump said he was deciding whether to announce during the trip that he would change how the United States refers to the Gulf, from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Arabia.One thing that the White House says won’t be on the agenda is Trump’s own businesses.Last month, the Trump Organization struck its first luxury real estate deal in Qatar, and released details of a billion-dollar skyscraper in Dubai whose apartments can be bought in cryptocurrency.Trump’s son Eric was promoting a crypto firm in Dubai while Don Jr prepared to talk about “Monetizing MAGA” in Doha.But the White House denied Trump was cashing in. “It’s frankly ridiculous that anyone… would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit,” Leavitt said.burs-dk/jgc/sco

In the first foreign tour of his second term, US President Donald Trump will arrive in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday before visiting Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.Trump is just the latest US president to visit oil-rich Saudi Arabia. Here are some of the most memorable meetings between US leaders and their Saudi allies.- The Suez handshake -The foundation for the US and Saudi Arabia’s enduring relationship was sealed with a handshake on a boat on Valentine’s Day, 1945.Months before the end of World War II, Saudi king Abdulaziz bin Saud and president Franklin Roosevelt met on board the cruiser USS Quincy in the Suez Canal.There, a deal was struck resulting in a decades-long partnership that would see the then-nascent kingdom receive military protection in exchange for the US’s privileged access to its vast oil reserves.- Nixon’s visit -Richard Nixon was the first US president to visit Saudi soil when he touched down in Jeddah on the Red Sea coast in June 1974.It followed a landmark US-Saudi agreement under which Saudi Arabia would sell oil exclusively in greenbacks in return for American military protection and economic and technical support.The deal helped lead to the US dollar’s supremacy in global trade for decades to come.– First Gulf War -President George H.W. Bush first visited Saudi Arabia as president ahead of Operation Desert Storm in late 1990, following Iraq’s invasion of neighbouring Kuwait.During the visit, he met King Fahd and Kuwaiti Emir Jaber Al-Sabah, and also addressed American troops based in eastern Saudi Arabia.Saudi Arabia was a key basing area for the US-led operation that pushed Saddam Hussein’s troops out of Kuwait in a lightning offensive.- The Obama snub -President Barack Obama was a frequent visitor, making four trips during his two terms, including a brief stop in 2015 to offer condolences on the death of King Abdullah.But Obama’s most memorable visit, his last, was one he may prefer to forget.Months after signing a nuclear deal with Iran, then Saudi Arabia’s fierce regional rival, Obama received a somewhat frosty welcome when he arrived in April 2016.Instead of King Salman, Obama was greeted at the airport by the governor of Riyadh, and the event was not broadcast live on Saudi TV.- Orbs and swords -By contrast, Donald Trump arrived with full fanfare when he made Saudi Arabia the first destination of his first term in 2017.A military fly-past and cannon salute greeted the recently inaugurated Trump, who was also bestowed with a gold medal and took part in a traditional sword dance.One image from the visit — Trump, Egypt’s president and King Salman standing with their hands on a glowing orb — quickly set social media alight.During the trip, the US signed a raft of agreements worth a total of $460 billion, including arms deals amounting to approximately $110 billion.The honeymoon period later cooled, with Riyadh faulting Trump for failing to respond more aggressively to a 2019 attack on Saudi Arabia by Iran-backed Huthi rebels that temporarily halved its crude output.- Biden’s fist-bump -Things did not begin well between Saudi Arabia and the Biden administration.At a debate in 2019, then candidate Joe Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” because of its human rights record, including the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.In 2021, Biden declassified an intelligence report that suggested Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had approved the operation against Khashoggi — an allegation the Saudi authorities deny.But when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sent energy prices soaring, Biden sought Saudi help to bring them down and ease pressure on US voters.In July that year Biden flew to Jeddah where he met the Crown Prince and de facto ruler with a fist-bump — another defining image that went viral.

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