According to Axios, White House officials told the crown prince ahead of the meeting that President Trump expected to make progress in normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Meetings between US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in recent days have been marked by apparent tensions as Trump has insisted on pushing Riyadh towards a normalization process with Israel.
But talks turned tense last Tuesday after President Trump raised the issue and directly pressured Riyadh to join the deal.
Pushing “in the opposite direction,” the Saudi crown prince stressed that Saudi Arabia “cannot take such a step now,” given the Saudi public’s hostility toward Israel after the Gaza war and that Saudi society is “not ready” for a normalization agreement at this stage.
Bin Salman expressed his opposition to this process and postponed the path to negotiations in this regard until the future. He said that the main condition for any action in this regard is the Zionist regime’s agreement to recognition of a Palestinian state.
MNA