Saudi Arabia's royals are watching the new US administration with a mixture of hope that President Donald Trump will be the answer to their fears concerning their rival Iran, but also with deep but unspoken concern that the new administration will cause them serious trouble.
Saudi media have trumpeted the hour-plus phone conversation between King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and Trump on Jan. 29. Well-connected journalists say that the call will lead to closer counterterrorism and military cooperation. They stress that the two leaders agreed that Iran is the state threatening regional stability and highlight that Trump's top advisers also view Iran as the problem in the region in contrast to what they perceived as efforts by former President Barack Obama to make Iran part of the solution to regional tensions. Without endorsing Trump's travel ban on seven Muslim countries, behind the scenes the Saudis are undoubtedly quietly pleased that it has at least caused Iran to retaliate with a ban on Americans visiting Iran. More friction and sanctions will be welcome in Riyadh, especially adding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to the US list of terrorist organizations. The two leaders apparently also agreed that the Iranian nuclear deal must be rigorously enforced but not abandoned.
The Saudis are pleased with Trump's call for safe zones in Syria. Riyadh wants Washington to be much more involved in Syria, especially in fighting Iran and Hezbollah. The Saudi government does not want Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies to prevail and remains wedded to the Sunni opposition. The Saudis blame the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda for having turned legitimate Sunni opposition into extremism. Given the Saudis' years of support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria and their tendency to arm any Sunni group fighting Assad, no matter how extreme, this is a somewhat incongruous reading of history.
Salman has not been as virulent about the Muslim Brotherhood as his predecessor, King Abdullah, but the royal court is now welcoming talk of listing the group as a terrorist organization. The Saudi readout of the call says that the two leaders noted that Osama bin Laden had allegedly been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, which led to his extremist orientation. So al-Qaeda is the fault of the Brotherhood even though al-Qaeda despises it. Bin Laden's close ties to the royal family in the 1980s were of course airbrushed from the narrative.
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