Dubai: Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince will fly to the United States on Monday for meetings with US President Barack Obama, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and senior officials, Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Al Awsat reported.
The visit of Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, in charge of an ambitious plan to revamp the economy of the world’s top oil exporter, comes amid policy differences with the United States over the war in Syria and Iran’s role in the Middle East.
Prince Mohammad also plans to travel to California where he is expected to meet company executives in Silicon Valley, the newspaper said.
The royal court said in a statement late on Sunday that the prince would discuss the strengthening of relations with the United States but it is expected that the war in Yemen and Syria will figure prominently on the agenda. It did not specify who he would meet during the three-day visit.
US-Saudi ties have cooled under Obama’s presidency.
Saudi Arabia, a leading supporter of Syrian rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Al Assad, has been critical of what it sees as foot-dragging by Washington over efforts to end the conflict.
It has also urged Obama to take a tougher stand on what Riyadh sees as Iranian meddling in the affairs of Arab states.
Asharq Al Awsat quoted Saudi sources as saying that Prince Mohammad, who is also defence minister, would start his visit in New York, where he was expected to meet the UN chief on Monday.
The prince would then meet Obama as well as Secretary of State John Kerry and Defence Secretary Ashton Carter in Washington, the newspaper said.
The meeting comes amid a Saudi campaign to defend the kingdom’s counter-terrorism record in advance of the expected declassification this month of 28 pages from a 2002 congressional report on the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Critics say those documents could implicate Saudi officials in the attacks on New York and Washington. Riyadh denies that, and has called for the documents to be made public. On Sunday, CIA chief John Brennan said there was no evidence to indicate that the Saudi government or senior officials were complicit in the attack.
Obama and Prince Mohammad, along with Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Nayef, met in the Oval Office in May 2015. Obama visited Riyadh in April when he attended a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
