President Trump’s journey to the Middle East illustrated yet again how the country central to the spread of this terrorism, Saudi Arabia, has managed to evade and deflect any responsibility for it. In fact, Trump has given Saudi Arabia a free pass and a free hand in the region.
.. For five decades, Saudi Arabia has spread its narrow, puritanical and intolerant version of Islam — originally practiced almost nowhere else — across the Muslim world.
.. the Saudi government, along with Qatar, has been “providing clandestine financial and logistic support to [the Islamic State] and other radical Sunni groups in the region.” Saudi nationals make up the second-largest group of foreign fighters in the Islamic State and, by some accounts, the largest in the terrorist group’s Iraqi operations. The kingdom is in a tacit alliance with al-Qaeda in Yemen.
.. so far the Saudi reforms have mostly translated into better economic policy for the kingdom, not a break with its powerful religious establishment.
U.S. Nears Deal on Arms Coveted by Saudis
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia are working on a package of arms deals and financial investments aimed at elevating economic and security cooperation between Washington and Riyadh after several years of strained relations over the U.S. diplomatic outreach to Iran.
Mr. Trump’s scheduled arrival in Saudi Arabia this week or his first stop outside the U.S. since taking office, include a missile-defense system and heavy arms the Obama administration either refused to sell Saudi Arabia or pulled back from amid concerns about Riyadh’s role in the conflict in Yemen
.. Trump’s goal is to get the Gulf states, principally Saudi Arabia, to help him achieve a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians.
.. “every system that we’re talking about” with the Saudis maintains Israel’s military advantage over its neighbors, known formally as its Qualitative Military Edge.
.. Israel isn’t objecting to the U.S. selling an advanced antimissile system, known as Thaad, to Saudi Arabia
.. Discussions over arms sales have been assigned higher priority over economic initiatives
.. Saudi officials promising Mr. Trump they would invest $200 billion in the U.S., and the White House committing to green-light the new arms sales to Riyadh.
.. Driving the outreach between the two countries are the Saudi king’s 31-year old son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and the president’s 36-year-old son-in-law and senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner
.. “The Saudis know that the person who is trying to get Trump on our side is Kushner,” said Ahmed al-Ibrahim, a Saudi businessman and political commentator. “He is the guy who has the Middle East portfolio.”
.. The monarchy felt betrayed by the Obama administration’s conciliatory approach toward Riyadh’s No. 1 foe, Iran,
.. “The narrative of the Obama administration was that Saudi Arabia and Iran must share the region,”
.. Riyadh’s plans to open up new business opportunities for American companies in the Kingdom, stepped-up counterterrorism operations, and support for the Trump administration’s renewed campaign to forge a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
.. The presentation was created for Saudi Arabia by the U.S. consulting firm Booz Alan Hamilton, according to these officials. It was designed “to have the maximum” impact on Mr. Trump
.. Mr. Trump responded to the crown prince’s offer of $200 billion by saying he wanted much of the money to be funneled into Rust Belt states, such as Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin
Jared Kushner Flies to Iraq for Briefing on Anti-ISIS Strategy
Trump’s son-in-law to meet with U.S. and Iraqi officers, get briefed on the fight against Islamic State
According to a statement from Mr. Abadi’s office, the two sides discussed the battle in Mosul, international support for Iraq, as well as training and equipment issues.
.. They were joined in those meetings by Tom Bossert, a former administration official under President George W. Bush, now serving as Mr. Trump’s homeland security adviser.
.. Last month, Mr. Kushner made, for a White House official, a rare appearance at the Pentagon, where he met Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince and Minister of Defense Mohammed bin Salman during his meeting with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
.. He has also been influential with his father-in-law on issues pertaining to Mexico and other countries, and he has been given broad authority by his father-in-law to attempt to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
.. Mr. Mattis and Gen. Dunford are completing a review of the strategy to fight the group.Trump signaled during the campaign and since assuming office that he had a plan to accelerate the fight against Islamic State, offering no details about what it might be.No plan has emerged, and it now falls to Mr. Mattis and Gen. Dunford to come up with a new strategy.
.. according to numerous U.S. officials, the strategy may largely resemble the old one, initiated under President Barack Obama, with tweaks and additions in the margins, U.S. officials said.
.. The new strategy, or a refinement of it, may include additional U.S. troops for both Iraq and Syria, possible changes that could put American soldiers closer to the front lines, and an accelerated airstrike campaign.
Hurdles Mount for Saudi Aramco’s IPO
Basic elements of oil giant’s governance, structure and financial disclosures remain unresolved
The difficulty of quickly turning a behemoth that functions largely to support the Saudi budget into a company accountable to shareholders has crystallized over the past couple of months.
.. The prince has said the company could be valued at more than $2 trillion when it is listed.
.. Currently, about 90% of Aramco’s profit goes to the Saudi government and members of the royal family, say five people familiar with the finances. The rest, they say, gets reinvested in the company.
.. the government and Aramco have brought in a host of foreign advisers, including banks; accounting firms PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Ernst & Young LLP; and law firms
.. The IPO is part of his plan to wean Saudi Arabia’s economy of its dependence on oil.
.. would put IPO proceeds and much of Aramco’s stock into a giant sovereign-wealth fund. That fund would then sink tens of billions of dollars into international and domestic companies outside the oil industry.
.. Prince Mohammed also met dignitaries including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
.. Aramco and the government are also trying to figure out how to handle vast subsidies on Aramco’s books, including natural gas that it sells at a loss to government-owned power plants
.. In some cases plants pay about two-thirds of the cost of pumping the gas; at other times the utilities don’t pay at all
.. The company currently requires that 80% of employees in each division be Saudi nationals, which is a challenge in some areas, like accounting, where there is a dearth of trained Saudis