Trump to close deal-making Gulf tour in UAE
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
42 minutes ago
- ABC News
United States launches review of the AUKUS submarine deal
The Pentagon is undertaking a review of AUKUS, and the news set the hares running in Australia, with opponents of AUKUS encouraged by the appearance of doubts in the Trump administration. It follows US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth telling Australia to increase defence spending by tens of billions of dollars. The Prime Minister will be heading to the G7 in Canada where it's anticipated he will meet President Donald Trump. Sarah Ferguson spoke to Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The Advertiser
an hour ago
- The Advertiser
Big step as Iran found in breach of nuclear obligations
The UN nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors has declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years, raising the prospect of reporting it to the UN Security Council. The major step on Thursday is the culmination of several festering stand-offs between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran that have arisen since President Donald Trump pulled the US out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers in 2018 during his first term, after which that deal unravelled. Since Iran bristles at resolutions against it and this is the most significant one in years, it is likely to respond with a nuclear escalation, as it has said it will. That could complicate the current talks between Iran and the US aimed at imposing new curbs on Iran's accelerating atomic activities. The resolution also comes at a time of particularly heightened tension, with the US pulling staff out of the Middle East, and Trump warning the region could become dangerous and saying Washington would not let Iran have nuclear weapons. Diplomats at the closed-door meeting said the board passed the resolution submitted by the United States, Britain, France and Germany with 19 countries in favour, 11 abstentions and three states - Russia, China and Burkina Faso - against. The text, seen by Reuters, declares Iran in breach of its obligations given a damning report the IAEA sent to member states on May 31. "The Board of Governors ... finds that Iran's many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran ... constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the Agency," the text said. A central issue is Iran's failure to provide the IAEA with credible explanations of how uranium traces detected at undeclared sites in Iran came to be there despite the agency having investigated the issue for years. The May 31 IAEA report, a board-mandated "comprehensive" account of developments, found three of the four locations "were part of an undeclared structured nuclear programme carried out by Iran until the early 2000s and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material". US intelligence services and the IAEA have long believed Iran had a secret, co-ordinated nuclear weapons program it halted in 2003, though isolated experiments continued for several years. IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi said this week the findings were broadly consistent with that. Iran denies ever having pursued nuclear weapons. While the resolution alluded to reporting Iran to the UN Security Council, diplomats said it would take a second resolution to send it there, as happened the last time it was declared in non-compliance in September 2005, followed by referral in February 2006. The UN nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors has declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years, raising the prospect of reporting it to the UN Security Council. The major step on Thursday is the culmination of several festering stand-offs between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran that have arisen since President Donald Trump pulled the US out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers in 2018 during his first term, after which that deal unravelled. Since Iran bristles at resolutions against it and this is the most significant one in years, it is likely to respond with a nuclear escalation, as it has said it will. That could complicate the current talks between Iran and the US aimed at imposing new curbs on Iran's accelerating atomic activities. The resolution also comes at a time of particularly heightened tension, with the US pulling staff out of the Middle East, and Trump warning the region could become dangerous and saying Washington would not let Iran have nuclear weapons. Diplomats at the closed-door meeting said the board passed the resolution submitted by the United States, Britain, France and Germany with 19 countries in favour, 11 abstentions and three states - Russia, China and Burkina Faso - against. The text, seen by Reuters, declares Iran in breach of its obligations given a damning report the IAEA sent to member states on May 31. "The Board of Governors ... finds that Iran's many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran ... constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the Agency," the text said. A central issue is Iran's failure to provide the IAEA with credible explanations of how uranium traces detected at undeclared sites in Iran came to be there despite the agency having investigated the issue for years. The May 31 IAEA report, a board-mandated "comprehensive" account of developments, found three of the four locations "were part of an undeclared structured nuclear programme carried out by Iran until the early 2000s and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material". US intelligence services and the IAEA have long believed Iran had a secret, co-ordinated nuclear weapons program it halted in 2003, though isolated experiments continued for several years. IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi said this week the findings were broadly consistent with that. Iran denies ever having pursued nuclear weapons. While the resolution alluded to reporting Iran to the UN Security Council, diplomats said it would take a second resolution to send it there, as happened the last time it was declared in non-compliance in September 2005, followed by referral in February 2006. The UN nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors has declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years, raising the prospect of reporting it to the UN Security Council. The major step on Thursday is the culmination of several festering stand-offs between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran that have arisen since President Donald Trump pulled the US out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers in 2018 during his first term, after which that deal unravelled. Since Iran bristles at resolutions against it and this is the most significant one in years, it is likely to respond with a nuclear escalation, as it has said it will. That could complicate the current talks between Iran and the US aimed at imposing new curbs on Iran's accelerating atomic activities. The resolution also comes at a time of particularly heightened tension, with the US pulling staff out of the Middle East, and Trump warning the region could become dangerous and saying Washington would not let Iran have nuclear weapons. Diplomats at the closed-door meeting said the board passed the resolution submitted by the United States, Britain, France and Germany with 19 countries in favour, 11 abstentions and three states - Russia, China and Burkina Faso - against. The text, seen by Reuters, declares Iran in breach of its obligations given a damning report the IAEA sent to member states on May 31. "The Board of Governors ... finds that Iran's many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran ... constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the Agency," the text said. A central issue is Iran's failure to provide the IAEA with credible explanations of how uranium traces detected at undeclared sites in Iran came to be there despite the agency having investigated the issue for years. The May 31 IAEA report, a board-mandated "comprehensive" account of developments, found three of the four locations "were part of an undeclared structured nuclear programme carried out by Iran until the early 2000s and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material". US intelligence services and the IAEA have long believed Iran had a secret, co-ordinated nuclear weapons program it halted in 2003, though isolated experiments continued for several years. IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi said this week the findings were broadly consistent with that. Iran denies ever having pursued nuclear weapons. While the resolution alluded to reporting Iran to the UN Security Council, diplomats said it would take a second resolution to send it there, as happened the last time it was declared in non-compliance in September 2005, followed by referral in February 2006. The UN nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors has declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years, raising the prospect of reporting it to the UN Security Council. The major step on Thursday is the culmination of several festering stand-offs between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran that have arisen since President Donald Trump pulled the US out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers in 2018 during his first term, after which that deal unravelled. Since Iran bristles at resolutions against it and this is the most significant one in years, it is likely to respond with a nuclear escalation, as it has said it will. That could complicate the current talks between Iran and the US aimed at imposing new curbs on Iran's accelerating atomic activities. The resolution also comes at a time of particularly heightened tension, with the US pulling staff out of the Middle East, and Trump warning the region could become dangerous and saying Washington would not let Iran have nuclear weapons. Diplomats at the closed-door meeting said the board passed the resolution submitted by the United States, Britain, France and Germany with 19 countries in favour, 11 abstentions and three states - Russia, China and Burkina Faso - against. The text, seen by Reuters, declares Iran in breach of its obligations given a damning report the IAEA sent to member states on May 31. "The Board of Governors ... finds that Iran's many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran ... constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the Agency," the text said. A central issue is Iran's failure to provide the IAEA with credible explanations of how uranium traces detected at undeclared sites in Iran came to be there despite the agency having investigated the issue for years. The May 31 IAEA report, a board-mandated "comprehensive" account of developments, found three of the four locations "were part of an undeclared structured nuclear programme carried out by Iran until the early 2000s and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material". US intelligence services and the IAEA have long believed Iran had a secret, co-ordinated nuclear weapons program it halted in 2003, though isolated experiments continued for several years. IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi said this week the findings were broadly consistent with that. Iran denies ever having pursued nuclear weapons. While the resolution alluded to reporting Iran to the UN Security Council, diplomats said it would take a second resolution to send it there, as happened the last time it was declared in non-compliance in September 2005, followed by referral in February 2006.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
UN nuclear watchdog finds Iran in breach of non-proliferation obligations for first time in 20 years
The United Nations nuclear watchdog has declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations on Thursday, for the first time in almost 20 years. The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) findings could lead to further tensions and set in motion an effort to restore United Nations sanctions on Tehran later this year. Since Iran bristles at resolutions against it and this is the most significant one in years, it is likely to respond with a nuclear escalation, as it has said it will. That could complicate the current talks between Iran and the US aimed at imposing new curbs on Iran's accelerating atomic activities. The resolution also comes at a time of particularly heightened tension, with the US withdrawing staff from the Middle East. US President Donald Trump has warned the region could become dangerous, saying Washington would not let Iran have nuclear weapons. Diplomats at the closed-door meeting said the board passed the resolution submitted by the US, Britain, France, and Germany with 19 countries in favour, 11 abstentions, and three states — Russia, China, and Burkina Faso — against. "The board of governors … finds that Iran's many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran … constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the agency," the draft resolution said. The draft resolution also said the IAEA's "inability … to provide assurance that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively peaceful gives rise to questions that are within the competence of the United Nations Security Council, as the organ bearing the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security." Iran has announced countermeasures to the IAEA's resolution, state TV said on Thursday, including the opening of a new enrichment site and upgrading of centrifuges in the Fordow nuclear facility. Tehran also condemned the solution, describing it as a "political" decision without technical or legal foundations. The US and Iran have been holding talks on Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program. Oman's foreign minister said earlier on Thursday that a sixth round of negotiations would be held in his country on Sunday. The IAEA flagged that Iran had amassed more near-weapons-grade uranium in its May 31 confidential report. The report sternly warned Iran was now "the only non-nuclear-weapon state to produce such material" — something the agency said was of "serious concern". US intelligence services and the IAEA have long believed Iran had a secret, coordinated nuclear weapons programme it halted in 2003, though isolated experiments continued for several years. IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi said this week the findings were broadly consistent with that. Iran denies ever having pursued nuclear weapons. While the resolution alluded to reporting Iran to the UN Security Council, diplomats said it would take a second resolution to send it there, as happened the last time it was declared in non-compliance in September 2005, followed by referral in February 2006. Reuters/AP
