Saudi Gazette report

WASHINGTON — Saudi-US relations have seen “huge improvement” under President Donald Trump’s administration, Saudi Ambassador to the United States, Prince Khaled Bin Salman, has said.

The new Saudi ambassador to Washington is son of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman.

The ambassador said the Kingdom was happy with the current US policies in the region. “There is a huge improvement in the Saudi-US relationship under this administration. I think that President Trump is determined to work with his allies in the region to counter Iranian expansionism and terrorism. We are happy with the current policies in the region,” he told Lally Weymouth of Washington Post in an interview.

Talking about Qatar, the ambassador said the policies pursued by Doha “threaten our national security, especially when they interfere in our domestic politics and support extremists. . . . In Syria, they have supported Al-Qaeda affiliates and some terrorist militias in Iraq. We hope Qatar will stop funding extremism.”

The government of the Custodian of the Two Hoy Mosques, he said, is on the frontline of fighting terrorism. “There might be people from a lot of different countries who support terrorism, but in Qatar the problem is that it is government-funded.”

When asked about the presence of “really moderate groups to support in Syria,” the ambassador asserted that there indeed are “some moderate opposition groups — for example, the Free Syrian Army. There are a lot of people in Syria who want to free themselves from the dictatorship of Bashar Al-Assad. We are working with our allies to help stabilize Syria.”

On whether he sees a way to create a transition so that President Al-Assad can go, the ambassador replied in affirmative.

“He has killed more than 500,000 people. We are working with the US to end the Syria problem.”

Talking about the Kingdom, he said, Saudi Arabia now has a dynamic young leadership, determined to push the country forward and to diversify its economy.

Regarding human rights the ambassador said: “Every country moves forward, and we are. The last two years have been a time of big change in our country. Human rights have been moving forward, women’s rights have been moving forward. Saudi youth have been given a chance to play a part in our future.”

On the contentious issue of women driving in the Kingdom, the ambassador said the leadership in the Kingdom realizes that women were important to the nation’s future and to moving our economy forward.

“We can’t move forward without half of our population,” he said.

Talking about the situation in Yemen, the ambassador said the Kingdom has been pushing all parties to the negotiating table. Blaming the Houthis for creating chaos, he said: “They started to march to the capital and take over Yemen before the Yemeni government asked Saudi Arabia to intervene and stop this attack. The ball is (now) in the Houthis’ court. They have to drop their weapons and become part of Yemen, not part of Iran.