DOHA: US President Donald Trump on Thursday closes a Middle East tour in the United Arab Emirates as he focuses squarely on seeking deals after billions of dollars of pledges from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The first major trip of his second term had been scheduled to end Thursday but Trump, always ready with surprises, did not rule out continuing on to Turkey if Russian President Vladimir Putin shows up for talks with Ukraine.
Trump will fly to the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi after a stop in Qatar, where the president hailed what he said was a record $200 billion deal for Boeing aircraft.
He started the trip in Saudi Arabia which promised its own $600 billion in investment, including one of the largest-ever purchases of US weapons.
The Gulf leaders’ largesse has also stirred controversy, with Qatar offering Trump a luxury aeroplane ahead of his visit for presidential and then personal use, in what Trump’s Democratic rivals charged was blatant corruption.
Trump, who also chose Saudi Arabia for the opening visit of his first term, has been unabashed about seeking Gulf money and hailed the effect on creating jobs at home.
In a speech in Riyadh, Trump attacked not only Democrats but also the traditional wing of his own Republican Party, which had championed US military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Complimenting the skyline of the Saudi desert capital, Trump said: “The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation-builders’, ‘neocons’ or ‘liberal non-profits’, like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad.”
“Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought about by the people of the region themselves,“ he said.
“In the end, the so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built.”
Silent on rights
Trump steered clear of any hint of criticism of the Gulf monarchies on human rights.
Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden had initially vowed to shun Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over US intelligence findings that he ordered the gruesome murder in 2018 of Jamal Khashoggi — a Saudi dissident writer who lived in the United States.
Trump instead hailed the crown prince, who is Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, as a visionary due to the kingdom’s rapid economic investments.
Trump also acceded to a key request by the crown prince in announcing a lifting of sanctions on Syria following the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in December.
He met in Riyadh with Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Islamist guerrilla once on the US wanted list who dressed in a suit and was complimented by Trump as a “young, attractive guy”.
Trump was joined in the meeting by Prince Mohammed and, virtually, by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the key supporter of the former Syrian rebels.
Trump said Wednesday he was willing to travel to Turkey if Putin accepts an offer by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet on ending the war.
Russia has given no indication that Putin will attend. Trump said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would travel nonetheless to Istanbul for the potential talks.
