I am writing this just after the Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman Al-Saud arrived in the US, where he was received with great ceremony by President Donald Trump. The reason I am submitting my article earlier than usual this week is because the transformations taking place in the Middle East – and the world in general – have been unfolding in successive stages, requiring a certain amount of time to exercise one’s capacities to digest them, especially given their magnitude and pivotal nature.
What conditions and developments led to this visit to Washington by a central Middle Eastern figure – at a time, moreover, when the US is represented by one of the most extraordinary figures in its history?
Trump had just freed himself from the pressures of a federal government shutdown and Congressional demands to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. But he still had a lot on his plate: conducting military operations against Venezuela, attempting to establish peace in the Middle East through a programme that had just been approved by the UN Security Council, and figuring out how to handle the war in Ukraine. Nevertheless, the touchdown of Bin Salman’s plane in Washington epitomised a critical moment, one that is the product of profound shifts in the Middle East and the American view of the region.
Reaching this turning point in the Middle East testifies to the constant flux in a region whose people never cease to await transformations as dazzling as the miracles recounted by the three divinely revealed religions. The most recent changes before the war on Gaza, which threw into relief a region-wide war, arose from the earthquake called the “Arab Spring.” One was civil wars that swept Arab countries with greater ferocity and brutality than ever before. Another occurred when the civil wars coupled with the Palestinian-Israeli war escalated into a regional war, leading to the collapse of the Arab nation-state due to the existence of militias operating outside the control of national authorities and hoisting the banner of “steadfastness and resistance” as a licence to take over the state itself. Eventually, the Arab region was divided between the countries mired in militia rule and current or looming civil war on the one hand and twelve states that had been spared civil warfare and militias and that possessed comprehensive visions for progress and development on the other. Bin Salman flew to the US as the latter group’s representative. He was received by a president who has come to realise that this region stands at the threshold of transition towards stability and effective participation in the global order, economically and technologically.
The prince expressed this outlook when he spoke of the “New Europe” in the Middle East while the president drew comparisons between the Gulf – especially in terms of infrastructural progress – and the US. Their meeting also reflected, to various degrees, an awareness of the sea changes that have set the present apart from the old Cold War world, with its bipolar duelling, and the globalisation era dominated by a single hegemon: the US. The present is characterised by a form of flexibility that permits simultaneous engagement with Washington and European powers on the one hand, and Moscow and Beijing on the other. Saudi Arabia and other Arab states seeking regional stability have benefited from this flexibility in crucial matters related to armament, energy, and international connectivity. While Trump may fluctuate between amicable and tough from one moment to the next, he will ultimately strike a deal – as he did with China, while still working for one with Russia.
All the foregoing was reflected in Trump’s historic visit in May 2025 to Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Doha, where he witnessed the impact of nearly a decade of progress since his first visit in 2017, during his first term. The result of that May meeting was a shared understanding that the Middle East cannot remain in its current state and that the US, while still the global superpower, was no longer striving for the liberal “end of history” and instead for a fresh start of history based on deal-making, mutual benefits, shared interests, and the confrontation of extremist threats.
The six months between the American visit to this region and the Saudi visit to America were filled with efforts to resolve the fifth Gaza war in its Arab and Palestinian dimensions. The Saudi-American collaboration was accurate in identifying the causes of that war and how it aimed to derail the prospects for peace through the extension of the “Abraham Accords” to Saudi Arabia. The aim of Hamas’ 7 October 2023 “raid” was to undermine the establishment of peace. It was carried out with the tacit cooperation of extremist Israeli forces, as has occurred with every attempt to sabotage peace since the Oslo Accords.
The recognition that maintaining the status quo serves none of the stakeholders means that only by launching a complex peace process can they all achieve their interests. This process began with the Saudi-French initiative for recognising the Palestinian state and the Egyptian-US cooperation in producing a peace document. The significance of the Saudi visit to Washington goes beyond bilateral implications: it marks the beginning of the return to regional peace.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 27 November, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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