Doha (TDI): US President Donald Trump on Thursday closes a Middle East tour in the United Arab Emirates as he focuses squarely on seeking agreements after billions of dollars of pledges from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The first major tour of his second term had been scheduled to end today but Trump did not rule out continuing on to Turkiye if Russian President Vladimir Putin shows up for talks with Ukraine.
Trump will fly to Abu Dhabi after a stop in Qatar, where the president hailed what he said was a record $200 billion agreement for Boeing aircraft.
He began the tour in Saudi Arabia which promised its own $600 billion in investment, including one of the largest-ever defense deal, the purchase of US weapons.
Trump, who also chose Riyadh for the inaugural tour of his first term, has been unabashed about seeking Gulf money and appreciated the effect on creating jobs at home.
In a speech in Riyadh, the President attacked not only Democrats but also the traditional wing of his own Republican Party, which had advocated US military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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He said that 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, adding, “In the end, the so-called nation-builders wrecked far more nations than they built.”
Trump praised Saudi Arabia´s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a visionary leader who led the kingdom to rapid economic investments.
The US president also acceded to a major request by Mohammad Bin Salman in announcing a lifting of sanctions on Syria following the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in December.
Read More: UAE Welcomes Trump’s Move to Lift Syria Sanctions
He met in Riyadh with Syria’s Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and complimented him as a “young, attractive guy”.
Trump was joined in the meeting by the Crown Prince and, virtually, by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the main supporter of the former Syrian rebels.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
