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Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Sunday said President Trump hit Saudi Arabia with a “bait and switch” by changing the terms of a nuclear deal to tie it to building Saudi relations with Israel.
“As you well know, the Saudis have been very clear that they will normalize relations with Israel when we’re on a clear path toward developing a Palestinian state, living side-by-side –– security for both Palestinians and Israelis,” Van Hollen told “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” host Martha Raddatz on ABC News. That has been the Saudi position. And so, what the Trump administration did was a bait and switch scheme.”
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday struck a nuclear cooperation deal that would allow the Saudis to enrich uranium, opening the door for a Gulf power to build a nuclear weapon. The Saudi government, however, is a rival to U.S. ally Israel and has long been accused of having involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Less than 24 hours later, Trump made it a condition of the deal that the Saudis normalize relations with Israel.
The senator called the deal and the aftermath a “complete whiplash.”
“I mean, it just shows you cannot rely on the United States,” the Maryland Democrat said. “You certainly can’t count on the Trump administration. They had signed a deal.”
The Saudis have long said that any normalization with Israel is conditioned on seeing a pathway to the establishment of a Palestinian state, something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long dismissed.
“The joint American and Israeli military action against the genocidal regime in Tehran and Israel’s crushing of Iran’s terror axis have created the possibility to expand the circle of peace,” Netanyahu’s office said Thursday.
“As President Trump has said, Saudi Arabia’s joining of the Abraham Accords would be an historic leap forward for peace in the Middle East,” the statement added. “Peace through Strength.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump “is always the final dealmaker,” when asked why the Abraham Accords’ conditions were not part of the Energy Department’s announcement of a deal with Saudi Arabia, noting too that if the Saudis reject joining the accords, “the deal is off.”
Trump has held up the 2020 Abraham Accords, which established ties among Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as one of the greatest foreign policy achievements of his first term and one that should have delivered him the Nobel Peace Prize.
On Friday, Trump suggested that the Saudis did not originally sign the accords for fear of being attacked by Iran, a threat that has since been eliminated.
“It’s a two-way street, and we think it’s very important for the future of the Middle East,” he said from the Oval Office at an event on nuclear power, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright standing behind him.
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