by Yusuf Dhia-Allah (News & Analysis, Crescent International Vol. 54, No. 12, Sha'ban, 1446)
For the ‘honour’ of becoming the first foreign ruler to speak to Donald Trump after his inauguration as US president, Muhammad bin Salman (MbS), the de facto Saudi ruler, pledged to pay $600 billion to the US. It was called an ‘investment over four years’. More would follow, according to the Saudi state-run news agency SPA.
Before taking MbS’s phone call, Trump had demanded that the Saudis invest $1 trillion in the US. Second, he would make the kingdom his first stop, again, if the Bani Saud pledged at least $500 billion in invesetments and reduce the price of oil. Trump will make sure he shakes the Saudis for the full $1 trillion.
When MbS announced the $600 billion investment pledge, Trump called him a “good guy”. With that kind of money, Trump could hardly call him a bad guy but he conveniently overlooked MbS’s gruesome murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. For this, MbS was given the epithet, Mr. Bone Saw!
MbS’s phone call to Trump will go down in history as the most expensive. It would not only make it into the Guiness Book of World Records but would be hard to beat, ever. After all, who would be foolish enough to fork out $600 billion for a mere phone call with Trump, an unrepentent snob and narcissist.
Slaves, however, have to do what their master tells them to do. The Saudi Press Agency tried to put a positive spin on it. “His Royal Highness the Crown Prince affirmed the Kingdom’s intention to broaden its investments and trade with the United States over the next four years, in the amount of $600 billion, and potentially beyond that” if opportunities arose, the state-owned agency added.
What benefit would accrue to the kingdom from Trump’s visit? Apart from oneupmanship over his fellow potentates in the region, there will be precious little. In fact, if the past is any guide, Trump would make more outlandish demands and the Bani Saud would not be able to say ‘no’. He might even demand that the Najdi Bedouins pay for Trump’s acquisition of Greenland!
During Trump’s first visit to the kingdom in May 2017, he was lavished with underserved praise as well as numerous gifts. He was received as king.
It was during that visit that the Saudis announced a purchase of $460 billion worth of US weapons ($110 billion immediately and $350 billion over 10 years). Trump called them “beautiful American weapons” that were used to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent Yemenis including spreading cholera among 1.2 million children because of lack of medications.
When MbS visited the US in March 2018, Trump made the same demand about buying US weapons. He told the Saudi visitor that they have lots of money and they should give some to the US since it is providing them protection.
Trump also demanded tackling the threat of terrorism, which the Saudis have spawned and sponsored for decades. MbS could only respond with a nervous smile. For decades, the US has supported terrorist outfits and financed them through the Saudis.
From Al Qaeda to ISIS or whatever fancy label they attach to themselves, they have been used by the US for its nefarious agenda. The latest manifestation of this was witnessed in Syria where Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS) suddenly erupted from Idlib on November 27, 2024 and in less than two weeks, took over Damascus.
Trump was not alone in the Saudi shakedown. His equally ambitious son-in-law Jared Kushner has also been carrying his wish list getting money from the Saudis, the Emiratis and Qataris.
Affinity Partners, the Saudi-funded hedge firm founded and headed by Kushner, received approval from Israeli regulators last month to double its stake in Phoenix Financial Ltd. This entity funds the construction of illegal zionist squatter colonies in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
Bloomberg reported on January 17 that Affinity could buy an additional 4.95 percent stake in the firm financing illegal squatter colonies. Kushner’s Affinity Partners made the initial purchase in July 2024, at the height of the zionists’ genocidal war on Gaza that has caused more than 200,000 deaths and injuries. More than 70% of the dead are women and children.
Kushner has close personal ties to the indicted war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu. Not surprisingly, Trump’s son-in-law is so keen on financing illegal squatter colonies in the occupied West Bank. The zionists are currently waging a genocidal war on the Jenin refugee camp even though they agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza, that has largely held out since going into effect on January 19.
The Palestinians, according to Kushner, are an inconvenient distraction. They must be got rid of and as soon as possible. He has other, more ambitious plans for Gaza. He wants to build multi-billion dollar luxury resorts and hotels on the Gaza waterfront.
Gazans should forget about fighting and work as waiters and cleaners in these fancy buildings for a better future, according to Kushner. If the Palestinians do not accept his “fantastic offer”, well they will just have to be got rid of, as Israel has been doing in Gaza.
The Bani Saud are not alone in financing Kushner’s illegal squatter colonies in the West Bank. The Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based Lunate have also contributed $1.5 billion to Kushner’s illegal projects on the West Bank and the illegally occupied Golan Heights.
For 15 months, while the zionists perpetrated a genocide in Gaza, the Arabian rulers did not lift a finger much less send any financial or other aid to the Palestinians. The UN estimates that it will require at least $40 billion and several decades to rebuild Gaza.
While the Saudis are busy financing, through Kushner, illegal squatter colonies on Palestinian and Syrian lands, they have not pledged even one riyal to rebuild Gaza. Can there be any greater proof of their treachery to Islam and the Muslims?