Trump to host Saudi crown prince on pomp-filled, deal-making visit

By Steve Holland, Matt Spetalnick and Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump will roll out the red carpet for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday, with the Saudi de facto ruler seeking to further rehabilitate his global image after the 2018 killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi and deepen ties with ​Washington.

Making his first White House visit in more than seven years, the crown prince will be greeted with a lavish display of pomp and ceremony presided over by Trump.

Talks between the ‌two leaders are expected to advance security ties, civil nuclear cooperation and multibillion-dollar business deals with the kingdom. But there will likely be no major breakthrough on Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel.

The meeting underscores a key relationship -- between ‌the world’s biggest economy and the top oil exporter -- that Trump has made a high priority in his second term as the international uproar around the killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi insider-turned-critic, has gradually faded.

U.S. intelligence concluded that bin Salman approved the capture or killing of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The crown prince denied ordering the operation but acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom's de facto ruler.

The warm welcome for bin Salman in Washington is the latest sign that relations have recovered from the deep strain caused by Khashoggi's murder.

During a day of White House diplomacy, bin Salman will hold ⁠talks with Trump in the Oval Office, have lunch in the Cabinet ‌Room and attend a formal black-tie dinner in the evening.

Trump expects to build on a $600 billion Saudi investment pledge made during his visit to the kingdom in May, which will include the announcement of dozens of targeted projects, a senior U.S. administration official said.

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia are ‍expected to strike deals on Tuesday for defense sales, enhanced cooperation on civil nuclear energy and a multibillion-dollar investment in U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Trump told reporters on Monday, "We'll be selling" F-35s to Saudi, which has requested to buy 48 of the advanced aircraft.

This would be the first U.S. sale of the fighter jets to Saudi Arabia and ​mark a significant policy shift. The deal could alter the military balance in the Middle East and test Washington's definition of maintaining what the U.S. has termed Israel's "qualitative ‌military edge." Until now, Israel has been the only country in the Middle East to have the F-35.

Beyond military equipment, the Saudi leader is seeking new security guarantees. Most experts expect Trump to issue an executive order creating the kind of defense pact he recently gave to Qatar but still short of the congressionally ratified NATO-style treaty the Saudis initially sought.

EYE ON CHINA

Former U.S. negotiator in the Middle East Dennis Ross, who is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, said Trump wants to develop a multifaceted relationship that keeps Saudi out of China's sphere.

"President Trump believes all these steps bind the Saudis increasingly to us on a range of issues, ranging from security to the finance-AI-energy nexus. He wants them bound to us on ⁠these issues and not China," Ross said.

Trump is expected to pressure bin Salman for Saudi Arabia to join ​the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel.

The Saudis have been reluctant to take such a major step without a clear path ​to Palestinian statehood, a goal that has been forced to the backburner as the region grapples with the Gaza war.

Trump reached Abraham Accords agreements between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan during his first term in 2020. In recent weeks, Kazakhstan agreed to join.

But Trump has always seen Saudi Arabia ‍joining the Abraham Accords as the linchpin to achieving a ⁠wider Middle East peace.

"It's very important to him that they join the Abraham Accords during his term and so he has been hyping up the pressure on that," the senior White House official said.

Jonathan Panikoff, former deputy national intelligence officer on the Middle East, said that while Trump will urge bin Salman to move toward normalizing ties with Israel, ⁠any lack of progress there is unlikely to hinder reaching a new U.S.-Saudi security pact.

"President Trump’s desire for investment into the U.S., which the crown prince previously promised, could help soften the ground for expanding ‌defense ties even as the president is determined to advance Israeli-Saudi normalization," said Panikoff, now at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.

(Reporting By Steve ‌Holland, Matt Spetalnick and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Don Durfee, Cynthia Osterman and Alistair Bell)