Inside Story

Was Donald Trump convincing in Saudi Arabia?

The US president calls on Muslim leaders to join his fight against violence in the name of religion.

Donald Trump’s first trip abroad as president was to Saudi Arabia, and the capital Riyadh laid on a grand royal welcome.

A business deal worth $350bn was signed between the United States and Saudi Arabia, about one-third of which was for weapons.

The visit also provided an opportunity to realign perceptions of power in the region.

Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama seemed to distance himself from Saudi Arabia by working with Iran as a regional leader.

As a longtime critic of Iran, Trump is looking to reverse that policy. But it was his speech at the Arab-Islamic-American summit that was the most anticipated, addressing the Muslim world – a world he had been strongly critical of during his election campaign.

Now he was urging Muslim leaders to share the burden in defeating those he described as Islamist extremists, saying a better future was possible only if they helped “drive out the terrorists”.

He stuck to the speech written by his senior adviser Stephen Miller. But was the overture from Trump genuine?

Presenter: Richelle Carey

Guests:

Robert Jordan – former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia

Ahmed Alibrahim – a Saudi affairs specialist

Henri Barkey – director of the Middle East programme at Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars

Sadegh Zibakalam – professor of political science at the University of Tehran