“Saudi Arabia claims it wants the war to continue,” titled the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on the morning of Wednesday, March 25. Riyadh refutes the previous day’s claims in The New York Times that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as “MBS,” “is pushing Trump to continue the war against Iran” and believes that seizing a “historic opportunity” to reshape the Middle East in favor of the Saudis is necessary.
The Saudi leader reportedly expressed this view during a “series of conversations last week” with the American president to convince him that Iran “poses a long-term threat to the Gulf, which can only be eliminated by getting rid” of the Tehran regime, and even advocated for ground operations to achieve this.
“Analysts familiar with Saudi power believe that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman probably would have preferred to avoid war,” but now, the worst-case scenario would be if Donald Trump settles for a “unfinished war” that would leave Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries alone against an increasingly aggressive Iran.
“Saudi officials certainly want the war to end, but how it ends is important,” also stated
