Khalid Al-Sulaiman

Okaz newspaper

When the president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced his determination to withdraw his troops from Syria, he demanded that Gulf States pay the bill for the presence of his troops. At that time, I wrote that the presence of the US in Syria was to protect America’s personal influence and interests in light of the Russian presence in the country. The United States is in fact paying its own bill, which has gone up, thanks to its erroneous policies in Iran, Syria and Iraq!

The American president used the same tone in his campaign for next month’s Congressional elections and demanded that Saudi Arabia and other countries pay the price for US protection. Moreover, he used undiplomatic language while addressing the heads of other nations; but notably he repeated his demands three times in one week, which can only mean that he heard an answer he did not like.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman confirmed that his answer to Trump was that we do not buy fish in the sea, and that Saudi Arabia’s safety and security has always been its own responsibility.

If you look at the threats made by Iran and its expansion in Iraq and Syria and the threat to regional security because of its support for terrorist organizations, you can say to the American president, who is claiming protection of the countries in the region, that the product he is selling is bad.

Our security has not been achieved through this protection. On the contrary Saudi Arabia has had to take responsibility for protecting the region and responding to the Iranian threat and ambition by itself.

If anyone is in debt, then it is America who owes Saudi Arabia for its fight against terrorism.