With delicate diplomatic meetings facing him, including three summits, The US president, Donald Trump faces a challenge of advancing his “America First” agenda without alienating key allies during his first trip abroad.
Stepping off Air Force One in 38 degrees Celsius heat with his wife Melania, Mr Trump and his entourage received a red-carpet welcome from Saudi King Salman.
The trip has been billed by the White House as a chance to visit places sacred to three of the world’s major religions while giving Mr Trump time to meet with Arab, Israeli and European leaders.
But uproar in Washington threatened to cast a long shadow over the trip. His firing of Mr Comey and the appointment of a special counsel to investigate his campaign’s ties to Russia last year has triggered a stream of bad headlines.
The New York Times reported Mr Trump had called Mr Comey a “nut job” in a private meeting last week in the Oval Office with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak.
The US president and King Salman made their way to a reception room at the airport, where they chatted over coffee. They later headed to Trump’s place of residence at a hotel in Riyadh.
Trump’s daughter and presidential adviser Ivanka Trump and Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner exited from the rear of the plane.
The president’s bilateral talks with King Salman are expected to revive a new page of historic and strategic relations between the two countries.
Trump is also expected to meet with Saudi officials with an aim to enhance historic relations and will participate in a signing ceremony of several agreements that will further solidify US-Saudi security and economic cooperation.
The US President will attend a summit with leaders of Gulf Cooperation Council to enhance strategic ties between the US and GCC states. During the summit, both sides would discuss several initiatives on armament, the confrontation of terrorism, in addition to security and economic issues.
On Sunday, Trump will meet with Arab and Islamic leaders to renew US commitment to the security of its allies in the region and the world and to tackle means to confront terrorism and international extremism.
The summit on Sunday will also focus on issues linked to security and stability, and will reaffirm the need to cooperate in defeating terrorism worldwide.
For his part, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir affirmed on Friday that the first foreign visit of Trump to the Kingdom and his participation in the first Arab-Islamic-US Summit indicates joint work to defuse tensions in the region and clarify the human values which include justice, equality and peace among peoples.
Trump made Saudi Arabia his initial stop Saturday on his first official trip overseas, before visiting Israel and the Vatican.
During his trip, the US President was accompanied by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, the president’s chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Habib Powell, White House Economic Adviser Gary Cohn, Press Secretary Sean Spicer, in addition to his daughter and Jared Kushner.
Ahead of arriving to Saudi Arabia, Trump said: “Our task is not to dictate to others how to live, but to build a coalition of friends and partners who share the goal of fighting terrorism and bringing safety, opportunity and stability to the war-ravaged Middle East.”d not deny the report, but said the “the real story is that our national security has been undermined by the leaking of private and highly classified conversations.”
Billions in US-Saudi deals to be signed
After a royal banquet, Mr Trump and the King were to have private talks and participate in a signing ceremony for a number of US-Saudi agreements, including a $US100-billion deal for Saudi Arabia to buy American arms.
National oil giant Saudi Aramco expected to sign $US50 billion of deals with US companies, part of a drive to diversify the kingdom’s economy beyond oil exports, Aramco’s chief executive Amin Nasser said.
Mr Trump is to deliver a speech on Sunday aimed at rallying Muslims in the fight against Islamic militants in Riyadh on Sunday.
He will also attend a summit with Gulf leaders as part of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.
Shortly after taking office, Mr Trump had sought to block people from several Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States, but the travel ban has been blocked by federal courts.
The 70-year-old President’s travel to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Italy and Belgium will be Mr Trump’s longest time away from the White House since he took office four months ago.
Even his hand gestures were likely to draw scrutiny in the Middle East, where the thumbs-up sign — a signature move of Mr Trump’s — is considered taboo.
Travel a welcome distraction from Comey controversy
The uproar over Mr Comey’s firing was unlikely to go away.
“It’s almost always true that when a president goes on a big foreign trip, especially one that has some important summits … that that dominates the news and knocks most other stuff out,” Republican strategist Charlie Black said.
Mr Trump, who has expressed a desire for friendlier relations with Moscow, drew a storm of criticism this week when it emerged that he had shared sensitive national security information with Russia’s Mr Lavrov during a meeting last week in the White House.
The President was already under attack for firing Mr Comey in the midst of an FBI probe into Russia’s role in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump campaign members.
Moscow has denied any such interference. Mr Trump has denied collusion and denounced the appointment of a special counsel as a witch hunt.
His fellow Republicans in Congress have expressed frustration that Mr Trump’s pro-business economic agenda, highlighted by a plan to cut corporate and individual taxes, have been pushed to the backburner by the turmoil.
“He clearly did have a bad two weeks. And clearly it’s my hope that he does … right the ship, that he improves so that we can just get going,” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said on the Hugh Hewitt radio show on Friday.
Reuters /Asharq Al Awsat
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