Mohammed bin Salman says his relationship with Trump’s son-in-law adviser is within normal context of government-to-government contacts
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has denied reports claiming that he said he has White House adviser and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner “in his pocket,” during a meeting with Washington Post editors and reporters.
Mohammed also rejected the claims made in The Intercept last week that said Kushner gave him the names of Saudi figures identified in a daily classified brief read by only the president and his closest advisers. According to the report, the Saudi officials named were those considered disloyal to the crown prince and who he had arrested and jailed during what he called an “anti-corruption crackdown.”
The arrests came shortly after an October meeting in Riyadh between the crown prince and Kushner, who saw the report before he lost his top-secret security clearance in February.
Mohammed met with the Washington Post on the last day of a four-day visit to Washington.
“We work together as friends, more than partners,” Mohammed said of his relationship with Kushner, insisting however that it was within the normal context of government-to-government contacts, according to the newspaper.
He said the arrests of dozens of people, mostly members of the Saudi royal family, had been in the planning stages for years.
Mohammed said the close relationship between him and Kushner described in The Intercept, which quoted unnamed US government officials and close confidants of the crown prince, “will not help us” and does not exist, the Washington Post reported.
While in Washington, Mohammed met with Trump, Kushner and the Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt to discuss the administration’s peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians, which has not yet been announced.
The White House will need Saudi Arabia and other Arab states to help persuade the Palestinians to accept the plan.
As reported by The Times of Israel