Riyadh: Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has praised the kingdom’s relationship with the current US administration just days after President Donald Trump warned that the Middle East country would not survive “two weeks” without US support.
“I love working with him (Trump),” the crown-prince told the US-based Bloomberg publication, adding that the two leaders had “achieved a lot in the Middle East, especially against extremism, extremist ideologies, terrorism and Daesh (the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant)”.
The 33-year-old said it was normal for allies to have disagreements and one must ultimately accept that “any friend will say good things and bad things”.
“So, you cannot have 100 percent friends saying good things about you, even in your family. You will have misunderstandings. So, we put that in that category.”
At a Mississippi campaign rally on Wednesday, Trump took a jab at Riyadh and said the country would not last “two weeks” if Washington withdrew its military support.
“We protect Saudi Arabia. Would you say they’re rich? And I love the king, King Salman. But I said ‘King – we’re protecting you – you might not be there for two weeks without us’,” Trump said.
