Trump Names Saudi Arabia A ‘Major Non-NATO Ally’ During MbS Candlelight Dinner Attended By Tech Moguls 

Aside from a couple of hiccups involving exchanges with the press, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MbS) visit to the White House went well, after he came bearing massive gifts, especially a pledge for a whopping $1 trillion in US investment.

During the Tuesday night candlelight dinner in his honor, which was attended by Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Jensen Huang, Cristiano Ronaldo, the head of FIFA Gianni Infantino – and many other tech moguls and notable figures – President Trump took the opportunity to proclaim for the first time Saudi Arabia as a “major non-NATO ally” (MNNA).

This was based on the signing of a new security pact with MbS, called the US-Saudi Strategic Defense Agreement (SDA), during the earlier Oval Office visit.

“At tonight’s dinner, I’m happy to share that we are elevating our military partnership by officially naming Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally,” Trump said.

This newly designated status will give the kingdom preferential access to US military hardware, which as Trump also unveiled will include sales of F-35 fighter jets and 300 US-manufactured tanks.

To some degree the US-Saudi oil for weapons relationship has been cemented institutionally going all the way back to the 1970s, but talk of nuclear energy – and even the US providing a potential nuclear nuclear security umbrella – represents an escalation in strategic closeness and relations.

As part of this, the White House is further describing this as the “legal foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar nuclear energy partnership.”

But what else does the United States (and Israel) get out of this? MbS appears to now be ‘cooperating’ on a years-long effort for normalization of ties with Israel, after diplomacy was stalled for two years amid the Gaza War.

The crown prince told reporters, “We want to join the Abraham Accords, but we also need a clear pathway to a two-state solution.”

“We had a constructive discussion with the president, and we’re going to work together to create the right conditions as soon as possible,” he added.

 As expected, all is well again despite years of Saudi Arabia being under a limited (and in reality somewhat mild) human rights spotlight:

The red carpet welcome for Prince Mohammed is an extraordinary moment in diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia. It is his first visit to the United States since the 2018 killing of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which U.S. intelligence determined the prince ordered. Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.

After Mr. Khashoggi’s murder, some Western business executives and government officials backed out of Saudi Arabia’s global investment conference, including leaders of major American financial institutions. But by the following year, top deal makers were back at the event in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

But apparently there’s nothing that Saudi petro-billions (or now Trillion) can’t fix – it covers a multitude of sins, and elites had already been flocking back to doing business with Riyadh over the last years.

Families of the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks aren’t happy either, given the mounting evidence of Saudi Arabia’s role in that as well. But America has a short memory and attention-span, apparently.