The White House official would not say who Kushner met with in Saudi Arabia. But he has cultivated a relationship with the crown prince, Mohammad Bin Salman, who, like Kushner, is in his 30s. Kushner arrived back in Washington, D.C., on Saturday night in time for a surprise birthday dinner for his wife, Ivanka Trump, at the Trump International Hotel.
“The Senior Advisor to the President, the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy, and the Special Representative for International Negotiations recently returned from Saudi Arabia,” the White House official said in a statement to POLITICO. “The Senior Advisor has also been in frequent contact with officials from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.”
The White House official added: “While these regional talks will play an important role, the President reaffirms that peace between Israelis and Palestinians can only be negotiated directly between the two parties and that the United States will continue working closely with the parties to make progress toward that goal.” (Politico October 2017)
When Saudis brag about firing the US Secretary of State, it becomes time to reexamine other security breaches, considering that a strategic partner may have had help in consolidating power with classified information. We’ll know more after one of the #TrumpRussia indictments.
The Daily Mail is reporting that one of the terms of a Saudi DC visit was the removal of Rex Tillerson and that Kushner was the messenger. More interesting is whether Jarvanka is naive about what tribal justice can entail.
The Intercept does have a tendency to overstate a claim, so the proof of sharing the PDB information lies in that such information only helped MBS draw up his purge list, because one assumes he knew who his enemies would be during a coup.
And of course, other things have historically been at stake, including the Bannon-Flynn-Kushner “Marshall Plan” for proliferating nuclear reactors, brokered by the Kingdom with Russian financing. All those promoting the absurd UraniumOne CT need to get a grip and start looking more closely there.
In June, Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman ousted his cousin, then-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, and took his place as next in line to the throne, upending the established line of succession.
In the months that followed, the President’s Daily Brief contained information on Saudi Arabia’s evolving political situation, including a handful of names of royal family members opposed to the crown prince’s power grab,
In late October, Jared Kushner made an unannounced trip to Riyadh, catching some intelligence officials off guard. “The two princes are said to have stayed up until nearly 4 a.m. several nights, swapping stories and planning strategy,” the Washington Post’s David Ignatius reported at the time.
What exactly Kushner and the Saudi royal talked about in Riyadh may be known only to them, but after the meeting, Crown Prince Mohammed told confidants that Kushner had discussed the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince, according to three sources who have been in contact with members of the Saudi and Emirati royal families since the crackdown. Kushner, through his attorney’s spokesperson, denies having done so.
[...]
Access to the President’s Daily Brief is tightly guarded, but Trump has the legal authority to allow Kushner to disclose information contained in it. If Kushner discussed names with MBS as an approved tactic of U.S. foreign policy, the move would be a striking intervention by the U.S. into an unfolding power struggle at the top levels of an allied nation. If Kushner discussed the names with the Saudi prince without presidential authorization, however, he may have violated federal laws around the sharing of classified intelligence.
[...]
In the months that followed, the arrestees were coerced into signing over billions in personal assets to the Saudi government. In December, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported that Maj. Gen. Ali al-Qahtani had been tortured to death in the Ritz.
theintercept.com/...
Jared Kushner’s comically large to-do list has mostly proven to be a bust, but Trump’s adviser-in-law has been quite successful in one area: strengthening ties between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Kushner accomplished this largely through his personal relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who ousted the heir to the throne last summer and later arrested dozens of business leaders and government officials in what was ostensibly a crackdown on corruption.
[...]
While they’d met previously, the Kushner-MBS friendship started one year ago during a long lunch at the White House. A snowstorm bumped German chancellor Angela Merkel from the White House schedule, giving the president and his advisers more time with the Saudis. The Washington Post reported that the two 30-something princes connected over being tasked with solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
As their countries’ chief negotiators on Israeli-Palestinian peace, Kushner and the Saudi prince were both seeking to prove their worth on the international stage. They consulted with one another frequently in private calls over the following months, according to people with knowledge of their communications.
nymag.com/...
'MBS [Mohammed bin Salman] is claiming that firing Tillerson was one of his requests to Trump via Kushner to be implemented before his visit to the US and it appears that he got what he wanted,' said a source close to the crown prince.
The outgoing secretary of state was in favor of a nuclear deal with Iran, curbing its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief – much to the dismay of its bitter enemies Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
He also drew the ire of the two regimes after he pushed for an end to their land, sea and air blockade of their neighboring Gulf state Qatar over claims that the county sponsors terrorism.
Tillerson attempted to broker talks between the three Arab countries during a visit in October after four months of the blockade but gave up when he made no progress with Salman, telling reporters: 'We cannot force talks upon people who are not ready to talk.'
'It p***ed off MBZ [UAE leader Mohammed bin Zayed] that Tillerson went to Doha and made that statement,' said the palace source.
'Every time they want to take aggressive action Tillerson calms things down, because he's thinking as a former businessman who runs an oil company, not as a general in the army.
'He managed to convince [Defense Secretary James] Mattis with his own point of view, not allowing MBS and MBZ to control the White House through Kushner.
'That scared MBZ, so they tried everything in their power to make Kushner pass on the message that Tillerson needs to be removed.'
- Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson learned he was fired after President Donald Trump tweeted the news on Tuesday last week
- DailyMail.com can reveal that Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia is claiming credit
- So too is the de-facto United Arab Emirates ruler Mohammed bin Zayed - Salman told friends that he made a deal that Tillerson would be removed from his position during meetings with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner last year
- The crown prince visited Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on Tuesday
- De-facto UAE ruler Zayed, has also been 'gloating' to his inner circle that he is responsible for replacing the secretary of state
- During a meeting with the president last year, Trump donor Elliott Broidy suggested Trump meet with Zayed
- A meeting memo was sent to George Nader, a UAE adviser with links to Trump
- Nader had been specifically tasked to lobby for Tillerson's removal, insiders said
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