Trump welcomes Saudi crown prince’s diplomatic comeback
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told US President Donald Trump that he wants Riyadh to join the Abraham Accords, the framework for the normalisation of ties between Israel and several Muslim states, but also wants to secure a “clear path” to Palestinian statehood. Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader was speaking during a visit the White House, his first since the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which occurred inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Also in the programme: Europe’s uneasy standoff with Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet”; and we hear from one of the scientists behind a new study which traces the origins of kissing back more than 21 million years...
Photo: Donald Trump speaking at black-tie dinner. Credit: REUTERS/Tom Brenner
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.0 | Hello and welcome to Newsare. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service Studios in central London. |
| 0:15.7 | I'm Tim Franks. We're beginning with a visit to Washington, which even by Donald Trump's,-Caps convention-busting standards has been eye-goggling. |
| 0:25.2 | The visit has been from the Saudi Crown Prince and the de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman. |
| 0:43.9 | The sound of a trumpet voluntary greeting the Crown Prince at the White House. That was on Tuesday. |
| 0:45.7 | And the formalities have continued today in what's expected to be slightly more regulation fashion |
| 0:50.2 | with an investment summit in Washington. |
| 0:52.4 | Although even there, the sums being talked about |
| 0:54.3 | a notionally vast, a promise of one trillion dollars of Saudi funds being poured into the US. |
| 1:01.3 | But it was what unfolded on Tuesday, which continues to grab the headlines, the very public |
| 1:06.6 | rehabilitation of a leader who Washington, and for a time the previous administration, had |
| 1:11.3 | treated, indeed declared, to be a pariah. That was following the murder of the dissident Saudi |
| 1:17.9 | journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents at the Kingdom's consulate in Istanbul in |
| 1:25.5 | 2018, and which the CIA concluded that the Crown Prince |
| 1:30.2 | had almost certainly known about in advance and approved. |
| 1:34.9 | Muhammad bin Salman's return to the top table has not been sudden, |
| 1:39.1 | but it reached its apogee on Tuesday with a welcome |
| 1:41.9 | and an honouring as lavish as could be. And an aggressive |
| 1:46.5 | defense by President Trump in response to this question from the ABC reporter Mary Bruce, |
| 1:52.5 | a question that was actually, as you'll hear, directed to the Crown Prince. |
| 1:56.9 | And your royal highness, the US intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist. 9-11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? And the same to you, Mr. President. Now, who are you with? I'm with ABC News, sir. You with who? ABC News, sir. Fake news. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. whether you like him or didn't like him, things happened, but he knew nothing about it. |
| 2:22.1 | The he, Mr. Trump referred to sitting next to him was Prince Mohammed, |
... |
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