At the White House on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters the U.S. should "take over” and redevelop the Gaza Strip, with the help of Saudi Arabia, and Benjamin Netanyahu said he believes a peace deal between the oil-rich kingdom and Israel is "going to happen.”
The Saudi response was swift — reiterating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s demands for an independent Palestinian state as part of any normalization agreement and rejecting the "infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” or "attempts to displace” them from their land.
Trump has signaled that a grand Middle East bargain is a top foreign-policy priority, and MBS, as Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader is known, sees the deal as an opportunity to get what he wants — namely a defense, technology and nuclear cooperation agreement with the U.S., according to people familiar with the situation.
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