FLASH
Shkruar nga Christian Rocca
But Trump is Trump; he only cares about himself, his brand value, his aura of eternal winner, and his family's income...
Would you give the Saudis F-35 fighter jets and nuclear technology? I wouldn't, but the American president, who yesterday scornfully dismissed the Khashoggi killing, is willing to do anything to keep the Gaza plan alive, even putting Israel in long-term danger, just on condition that his family keeps raising money.
"Things happen ," said Donald Trump, trying to quell American journalists' questions about Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, the man who, according to US intelligence led by Trump, orchestrated the murder and dismemberment of the body of Saudi-American Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
"A lot of people didn't like this gentleman you're talking about. Whether we like it or not, these things happen. Bin Salman doesn't know anything about this, so don't embarrass our guest with such questions ," Trump said sheepishly in front of the cameras.
Of course, MBS knows a lot about Khashoggi’s murder, as he ordered it and then staged a show trial to pin the blame on some of his worthless aides; and, moreover, despite Trump’s claim that MBS knew nothing about it, MBS spoke at length to reporters, admitting that it was “a big mistake.”
On another occasion, answering a question from Trump, MBS disappointed him. When Trump, with his usual self-righteousness, asked if he was the president who had done the most for US-Saudi relations, MBS replied that, eh, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat, was the one who started relations between the two countries 80 years ago, and a certain Ronald Reagan wasn’t bad either.
Trump was disappointed and changed the subject, but accepted the promise of Saudi investment in America of up to a trillion dollars, a hyperbolic and impossible figure, much higher than the six hundred billion that Trump had announced, amid skepticism from analysts. However, Bin Salman objected: why offer only six hundred billion when he can offer up to a thousand? Let's make it a rounded figure. Nevertheless, with MBS's promise, the most attentive observers noticed the dollar signs in Trump's eyes.
Speaking of money, reporters asked Trump if it was normal for his family members to receive endless amounts of money from the Saudis, first his son-in-law Jared Kushner (with $2 billion invested in his fund), and now his children, using cryptocurrencies.
Besides, this is just what we know, public information; there may be more we don't know, or even more that hasn't been discovered yet.
Nothing strange, Trump replied, everything is normal. In fact, he does not believe that his relatives have done any significant business with the Saudis so far, but he is convinced that things will soon be fine. You can really trust the words of a gentleman who last week cut tariffs on Switzerland in half, just because a Swiss delegation gave him a gold watch and a gold bar with his name carefully stamped on the side.
The focus of Bin Salman’s visit to Washington, however, is the Middle East. Trump would like Bin Salman to sign the Abraham Accords. Bin Salman will do so when a Palestinian state is established, or at least when it is on the path to establishment, which is why the UN resolution was passed, thanks in part to American support, on an international occupation of the Gaza Strip, on a vote of no confidence in the Palestinian National Authority, and on the long road to Palestinian statehood. We are still a long way from that outcome, and when Trump said the Saudis would contribute a lot of money to the reconstruction of Gaza, Bin Salman did not confirm it.
However, Bin Salman has already achieved a pretty good result: Trump has decided to ignore the Pentagon veto and will sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, a country that, thanks to the historic veto imposed by the Americans when they were wiser, has never had a military air force worthy of its name; otherwise it would have started wars of all kinds and certainly would not have spared Israel.
The Pentagon opposes the sale of fighter jets to Riyadh because the Saudis have recently established mutual security ties with the Chinese, and therefore fears that such deals could allow the Chinese to benefit from American military technology. This fear is not unfounded.
But there is more: today Bin Salman is certainly a reformer of his country and the driving force behind the Abraham Accords and the ceasefire in Gaza, but he remains the absolute tyrant of a regime founded on an extreme and radical version of Islam.
Bin Salman has (semi-)opened the Saudi kingdom to the world and is very progressive compared to his predecessors and the mullahs who influence the local population, but apart from the fact that he is not even formally king (the current king is his father, Salman), Saudi Arabia remains a country just one step away from returning to financing Islamist terrorism, spreading extremist hatred and nurturing new Bin Ladens.
With the F-35 jets at their disposal, assuming they are capable of using them, the Saudis become yet another potential enemy of Israel, this time armed, just when it seems more fragile than ever.
Unfortunately, that's not all. Yesterday, Trump also said at the White House that he sees a deal to transfer American nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia as possible.
F-35 fighter jets plus nuclear technology – a great opportunity for Bin Salman and a great danger for Israel. This is proof that Trump can never be trusted, even when, due to a strange combination of circumstances and billions of dollars in cash, he does something that seems acceptable, even fruitful, like the Abraham Accords, the Gaza ceasefire, and the path to Palestinian autonomy.
But Trump is Trump; he only cares about himself, his brand value, his aura of eternal winner, and his family's income. Now it seems that he has fixed the Middle East, but for now he has only fixed his bank accounts and certainly not freed the Israeli hostages./ Adapted by "Pamphlet" from "Linkiesta"
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