Amid rising tensions in the Middle East, President Trump is signaling a tougher approach toward Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, fueling speculation about a potential shift in regional alliances. As Washington reassesses its strategy, analysts suggest that Trump’s pressure could push Riyadh closer to Israel in a bid to counter Hamas and reshape regional power equations. With diplomatic negotiations intensifying behind the scenes, questions are growing over whether Saudi Arabia—one of the most influential Muslim nations—might consider a historic strategic alignment that could dramatically alter the future of the Israel–Hamas conflict.
00:00Going to leave nothing uncovered. With that being said, the king firmly denied any knowledge of it.
00:07He didn't really know. Maybe, I don't want to get into his mind, but it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. Who knows?
00:16The incident that happened is very painful for all Saudis, especially since I am a Saudi citizen.
00:22And I believe it is painful for any person in the world. It is a completely unjustified, horrific incident.
00:28Today, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is taking all legal measures to investigate and complete the investigations by working with the Turkish government to reach the results and bring the guilty to trial and impose the deterrent punishment.
00:40Seven years after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi sent U.S.-Saudi relations into their deepest freeze in decades, an extraordinary moment is unfolding in Washington.
01:01Today, President Donald Trump welcomes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman back to the White House for the first time since 2018.
01:10And unlike the tense human rights-dominated years under Biden, this meeting signals something very different.
01:18A reset, a realignment, and the possible birth of a new Middle Eastern security architecture.
01:23The state visit is being billed as a pivotal moment, a checkpoint where two powerful leaders attempt to lock in a new long-term partnership.
01:42Behind closed doors, Trump and MBS are expected to move forward on a series of massive, potentially error-defining agreements.
01:50A binding defense pact, treating any major attack on Saudi Arabia as a red line for the United States.
01:57A framework for U.S. support of Saudi Arabia's civilian nuclear program under strict safeguards.
02:04Possible access to top-tier American weaponry, including the long-withheld F-35 stealth fighter, which Trump, hours before the crucial meeting, said he would approve.
02:14Yeah, no, I am planning on doing it. They want to buy. You've been a great ally. They've got to like us very much.
02:22Look at the Iran situation, what we did in terms of obliterating, you know, their, we obliterated their nuclear capability.
02:30Yeah, I will say that we will be doing that. We'll be selling F-35.
02:35Multi-billion-dollar investment commitments from U.S. tech giants, fueling Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 transformation,
02:43and joint strategies to contain regional crises from Gaza to Sudan to secret Saudi-Iranian mediation channels.
02:52In short, this meeting isn't symbolic. It's strategic, massive, and aimed to reshaping the post-Biden Middle East.
02:59But hovering over these talks is one issue both sides cannot escape, Gaza.
03:14Despite Trump's confidence that Saudi-Israeli normalization is very doable, Saudi officials have hardened their stance.
03:22For Riyadh, no peace with Israel is possible without genuine progress towards a two-state solution.
03:29International guarantees for Gaza's reconstruction and assurances that Gaza will never again be leveled by war.
03:37Saudi leaders have also pointed to Israel's expanding operations, the Lebanon campaign,
03:42and the controversial 2025 strikes on Doha as proof that Tel Aviv itself can destabilize the region.
03:51Still, the Trump team remains cautiously optimistic.
03:54Behind the scenes, Jared Kushner has been shuttling back and forth to Riyadh,
03:59laying the groundwork for a complicated but possible normalization roadmap.
04:04For Donald Trump, the stakes are clear.
04:15First, he wants major deals, defense exports, tech partnerships, energy stability, moves that create American jobs and cement his transactional brand.
04:26Second, he wants to reassert U.S. dominance in the Middle East, where China and Russia are aggressively expanding influence.
04:35And third, Trump wants a legacy to expand the Abraham Accords and secure his place as the president who brought unprecedented alignment between Israel and the Arab world.
04:45And in that effort, his personal chemistry with MBS is a major asset.
04:51Trump sees the crown prince as a friend.
04:54MBS sees Trump as a rare Western leader who prioritized strategy over moral lecture.
05:00But not everyone in Trump's orbit is celebrating.
05:12Some of his most hardline MAGA allies like Marjorie Taylor-Breen and Steve Bannon have criticized lavish state visits as inconsistent with America First.
05:23Trump fired back, calling Green a ranting lunatic and publicly withdrawing support for her.
05:28It is a stark reminder that even Trump's foreign policy moves can ignite internal Republican battles.
05:36Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabia of 2025 is not the Saudi Arabia of 2017.
05:43MBS arrives in Washington as the ruler of a wealthier kingdom, a more assertive diplomatic power, a state flushed with cash from strategic OPEC plus production cuts, and a fast-growing non-oil economy.
05:57Today, Riyadh negotiates not as a dependent client, but as a near-equal power.
06:03As one Gulf diplomat put it,
06:05This is not 2017.
06:07MBS is not coming to be forgiven.
06:10He's coming to formalize a partnership both sides now know they cannot afford to lose.
06:15But the biggest question remains unresolved.
06:28Can the United States and Saudi Arabia bridge their widening gap over Gaza, over Israel, and over the path towards Palestinian statehood?
06:36Can Trump work his trademark deal-making magic in Amelie's far more fracture than the one he left in 2021?
06:45Or will the unresolved Gaza question overshadow everything else?
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