Former President Donald Trump has spoken recently with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, according to a report.
The phone conversation between the presumptive Republican nominee for president and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, reported by the New York Times, comes as the Biden administration pushes to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Normalizing relations between the Jewish state and a number of Muslim majority countries was one of Trump’s landmark foreign-policy achievements during his only term in office.
It’s unclear exactly when the conversation between the 38-year-old de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and the 77-year-old former president took place, and no details of what was discussed on the call were reported by the outlet.
The Trump campaign did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan scrapped a planned trip to the kingdom on Wednesday after suffering a cracked rib that prevented him from traveling.
“This was a minor accident of his own,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “It was not caused by anybody. It was not the result of a nefarious act.”
Sullivan will seek to reschedule his trip as quickly as possible, Kirby added.
The White House official had been expected to hold talks with Salman related to the US-led effort aimed at thawing relations between Jerusalem and Riyadh.
Diplomatic negotiations came to halt after Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
President Biden has suggested that the attack on Israel was launched in part to disrupt talks.
“One of the reasons why they acted like they did, why Hamas moved on Israel, is because they knew I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” Biden, 81, said at a campaign fundraising event last October.
“Because the Saudis wanted to recognize Israel and that would in fact unite the Middle East,” he added.
The deal that had been taking shape was aimed at increasing Middle East stability, pushing back against the Iranian nuclear threat – Iran is a fierce rival of Saudi Arabia – and increased economic cooperation.
Under Trump, the US brokered normalization agreements – the Abraham Accords – between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Morocco and Bahrain.
Former White House adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, who built a close relationship with Salman during negotiations over the Abraham Accords, reportedly received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, for his Affinity Partners firm, six months after Trump left office.
