The meeting between Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman and US President Donald Trump has been described as a reset in the US-Saudi relationship, which hit an all-time low during the Obama administration.

 

According to, Bernard Haykel, an expert on Middle East affairs, if the two sides agree, much progress can be made on containing Iran, defeating ISIS and al-Qaeda and helping resolve the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

 

Trade and investment

“The two sides are also likely to find ways to create jobs in the United States through trade and investment, a subject dear to Mr. Trump,” Haykal wrote in an opinion piece published by The Washington Times.

 

Bernard Haykel is professor of Near Eastern Studies and the Director of the Institute for Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia at Princeton University.

 

In his piece Haykel writes that President Obama rejected Saudi warnings and turned a blind eye toward Iran’s interventionist policies in the Middle East.

 

“Tehran tried to dominate Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen and take advantage of chaos in those countries.

 

It mobilized its considerable resources to indoctrinate, train and arm Shiite groups such as Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Hashd al-Shaabi whose aim is to undermine local stability and American influence”.

 

Haykel also says that Trump’s key advisers have made clear that Iran’s activities must stop and that Mr. Obama’s policies of appeasement are over.