U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are seen during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 30, 2018. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump spoke on Friday to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about Middle East stability and the oil market, the White House said, after tensions with Iran prompted a rise in oil prices.

“The two leaders discussed Saudi Arabia’s critical role in ensuring stability in the Middle East and in the global oil market. They also discussed the threat posed by the Iranian regime’s escalatory behavior,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

The phone call took place in the wake of Iran’s shooting down of an unmanned U.S. drone in the Gulf region, which prompted Trump to prepare but ultimately hold back from launching a retaliatory attack.

There was no word from the White House statement on whether Trump raised with the crown prince the death last October of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A 100-page report by the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Agnes Callamard, earlier this week accused Saudi Arabia of a “deliberate, premeditated execution” and said the crown prince should be investigated for it. </s> Baku. 20 May. REPORT.AZ/ President of the United States Donald Trump has arrived on his first official visit to Saudi Arabia. Report informs citing the Al-Arabiyain Riyadh, Trump is scheduled to meet with King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. Issues of strengthening cooperation in a number of areas, in particular, in the economic and military-technical spheres will be discussed. A number of bilateral agreements are expected to be signed.

After Saudi Arabia, Trump will visit Israel and the Vatican and then take part in the NATO summit in Brussels and the G-7 leaders' meeting in Sicily. </s> President Donald Trump no longer has any intention of meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he had announced, but will get together with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has had tense relations with Riyadh because of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump said last week that he would have a bilateral meeting with Bin Salman if both attended the meeting of G20 leaders, to be held in Buenos Aires this Friday and Saturday. </s> US President Donald Trump spoke on Friday to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about Middle East stability and the oil market, the White House said, after tensions with Iran prompted a rise in oil prices.

“The two leaders discussed Saudi Arabia’s critical role in ensuring stability in the Middle East and in the global oil market. They also discussed the threat posed by the Iranian regime’s escalatory behavior,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement. </s> Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud meets with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 16, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis/Pool

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday expressed concern about the disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a meeting in Riyadh with the country’s foreign minister and thanked Saudi King Salman for his commitment to investigating it, the State Department said.

Pompeo met with both King Salman and Foreign Minister Ahmed al-Jubeir. “The secretary reiterated U.S. concern over Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance” in his meeting with the foreign minister, State Department Heather Nauert said in a statement. </s> ELKO, Nev. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he is not satisfied with Saudi Arabia’s explanation for the circumstances around the killing of journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

Speaking to reporters in Nevada, Trump added that it was possible that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had been unaware of the death. </s> President Donald Trump soaked up the grandeur of Saudi Arabia on his first foreign stop as president last year and envisioned huge benefits for the United States in building closer ties with the repressive and oil-rich desert kingdom.

Now, the White House relationship with Riyadh is imperiled over the mysterious disappearance of a Saudi writer, and the situation is creating friction between the Trump administration and members of Congress demanding to know if the columnist for The Washington Post was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey.

Trump said he has talked to officials at the highest level of the kingdom and is “demanding everything” to explain how Jamal Khashoggi, an activist who had been critical of Saudi leaders, vanished after he walked into the consulate in Istanbul to get documents he needed to get married.

Turkish authorities claim Khashoggi, who resided in the United States, was killed by members of an elite Saudi “assassination squad.” The kingdom describes the allegation as “baseless.” But if Saudi Arabia is found to be complicit in his disappearance or death, the warm U.S.-Saudi relationship — and even hopes for Middle East peace — could be upended.

A senior administration official said Friday that the U.S. is in ongoing contact with Turkish and Saudi officials about the case. The U.S. believes it is essential that Turkish authorities — with full, transparent support from the Saudi government — are able to conduct a thorough investigation and officially release the results, the official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly, said the U.S. supports Turkish investigators’ efforts, will not prejudge the outcome of the official investigation, but stands ready to assist.

Trump said Thursday the U.S. had “investigators over there and we’re working with Turkey” and Saudi Arabia. But he has provided no details.

Trump has backed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious campaign to modernize the conservative kingdom and its economy. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who exchanges phone and text messages with the young crown prince, was instrumental in last year’s deal to sell $110 billion in U.S. weapons to the kingdom.

But even before Khashoggi vanished, concerns were mounting in Congress over Saudi Arabia’s policies and the crown prince’s aggressive steps to silence his critics. And now there are calls on Capitol Hill for the U.S. to halt arms sales to the kingdom, and Khashoggi’s disappearance could galvanize more opposition from lawmakers and pressure Trump to rethink his relations with Saudi Arabia.

Trump on Thursday pronounced U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia “excellent” and said he doesn’t want to scuttle arms deals with Riyadh because it means tens of millions of dollars pouring into the U.S. economy. He said the kingdom would simply buy the weapons from Russia or China instead.

“If it turns out to be as bad as it might be, there are certainly other ways of handling this situation,” he said without elaborating.

Much of how the U.S. responds will depend on whether evidence surfaces that proves Saudi Arabia is responsible for Khashoggi’s death.

Trump will have to craft a “calibrated response,” said Jon Alterman, who directs the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “He doesn’t like that approach. The president likes complete wins.”

The close ties between the Trump White House and the kingdom were in part forged by a friendship between two young princes: Last spring, Kushner and the crown prince met formally for the first time as a late-season snow fell outside the White House.

The two men — both in their 30s, both trusted aides of older, familial leaders — struck a bond. As their countries’ chief negotiators on Israeli-Palestinian peace, Kushner and the Saudi prince were both looking to make a name for themselves on the world stage and consulted with each other frequently over the following months.

Kushner championed Crown Prince Mohammed to the president and senior foreign policy officials, some of whom expressed wariness at the embrace of MBS, as he is known in diplomatic circles.

The two men’s relationship also played a key role in Riyadh becoming the unlikely first stop on Trump’s maiden international trip in May 2017. Trump, despite endorsing a travel ban on Muslims during his campaign, became the first U.S. president to make his official first trip to an Islamic nation.

Relations between the two countries are complex because they are entwined on energy, military, economic and intelligence issues. The Trump administration has aggressively courted the Saudis for support of its Middle East agenda to counter Iranian influence, fight extremism and forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

“We want to have a relationship with Saudi Arabia. They’re a strategic partner. They’re a mortal enemy of the Iranians. They’re helping us on terrorism,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Trump supporter and top member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“Having said all that, if this did happen — and it’s increasingly likely that something bad happened to this man at the hands of the Saudi government — that shows contempt for us. That’s disrespectful to us. It puts people like me in a box who’ve been one of the leading champions of the relationship.”

It’s not just Graham who’s in a box. It’s also Trump, who has long-standing business ties to Saudi Arabia.

Jeff Prescott, who was senior director for the Middle East at the National Security Council during the Obama administration, said that a reassessment of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia is overdue and that Trump should raise U.S. complaints with Saudi leaders.

“What the Trump administration has given Saudi Arabia is a green light to pursue any policy,” said Prescott, now executive director of National Security Action, a group of former officials opposed to the Trump administration. “The key question is whether Republicans will have the courage to force the administration to have a reckoning of the relationship.”

He said Kushner’s project to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians also could be in jeopardy.

“There is no question that a rift with Saudi Arabia — or even relations strained by pressure from Congress — would make an already bleak prospect even less likely,” Prescott said.

In Congress, there is a push for sanctions under a human rights law, and lawmakers are questioning American support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign against Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen. The U.S. has raised concerns previously about heavy civilian casualties caused by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., voiced doubt there would be support in Congress for another arms sale to Saudi Arabia — though lawmakers haven’t blocked sales before. He also called for at least a temporary halt in U.S. military support for the Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen. Murphy tweeted that if Saudi Arabia is found complicit in Khashoggi’s death, it should be viewed as a “fundamental break in our relationship with Saudi Arabia.”

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince intends to expand an investigation into missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi and that the prince did not know what happened in the Turkish consulate where Khashoggi apparently disappeared.

“Just spoke with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia who totally denied any knowledge of what took place in their Turkish Consulate,” Trump said on Twitter, referring to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “He was with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the call, and told me that he has already started, and will rapidly expand, a full and complete investigation into this matter. Answers will be forthcoming shortly.” </s> US President Donald Trump has arrived in Saudi Arabia on the first leg of his first foreign trip since taking office, in a crucial test abroad as political scandals mount at home.

In a red-carpet airport welcome, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud greeted Trump, his wife Melania and his entourage shortly after they landed in the capital, Riyadh, around 06:50 GMT on Saturday.

Trump will hold a series of meetings with the king and other Arab and Muslim leaders on Saturday and Sunday, before jetting off to Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, the Vatican, Belgium and Italy in a nine-day tour across the Middle East and Europe.

During the two-day visit to the kingdom, Trump is expected to sign a major weapons deal, give a speech on Islam and discuss the battle against "terrorism" with more than 50 leaders.

It is the first time a US president has chosen Saudi Arabia as the first stop on a maiden trip.

Trump's visit is seen as highly symbolic, as he looks to repair Washington's ties with its closest Arab ally.

During the final years of Barack Obama's US presidency, "relations had undergone a period of difference of opinion", according to Saudi officials. These differences were largely centred around the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the Obama administration's cautions to the kingdom about the civilian toll of the war in Yemen.

READ MORE: What to expect from Trump's Middle East visit

Al Jazeera's Washington editor James Bays, reporting from Riyadh, said the Saudis were very "proud and excited" that the US president chose the Gulf country as his first stop.

"They want a reset of the relationship with the US. They were not happy with Obama, and they were not happy with the US policy in Yemen and in Syria," Bays said.

Ahmed Alibrahim, a Saudi political analyst, told Al Jazeera that the Saudis see this as a "great day" for relations with the US.

"We think President Trump's cabinet does understand the Saudi challenges and does understand the challenges the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] faces."

He added that the kingdom would like to see more "decisive statements, actions and sanctions on the Iranian regime".

Before the trip, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the visit will "bolster the strategic partnership between the two countries".

He added that "several agreements will be signed, including political agreements ... and big economic agreements".

Marwan Kabalan, an analyst at the Doha Institute's Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, told Al Jazeera the US and Saudi Arabia will discuss a strategic plan aimed at countering "extremism" as an ideological battle.

"I think both sides have high expectations of this summit, as they are expected to discuss the most pressing issues for both of them like the conflict in Yemen, the war in Syria and the war on ISIL," Kabalan said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant armed group, also known as ISIS.

"Trump is expected to address the entire Islamic world while trying to establish this sort of a strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia, particularly concerning groups like ISIL."

Arms deal

On Saturday, Trump is expected to announce an arms deal with Saudi Arabia worth more than $100bn, in what could be the biggest such agreement in history.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, US officials familiar with the package told the Associated Press news agency that the deal would include Abrams tanks, combat ships, missile defence systems, radar and communications and cybersecurity technology.

Much of the package builds on commitments made before Trump took office, although some elements are new, including weapons designed to help Saudi Arabia in an air campaign it has led in war-torn Yemen, officials said.

The Trump administration separately informed Congress on Friday that it will sell some $500m in precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia. These include laser-guided Paveway II bombs and JDAM kits for converting unguided bombs into "smart bombs".

'Historic summit'

Also on the agenda in Riyadh is a summit of more than 50 Arab and Muslim leaders, including those from the six nations that form the Gulf Cooperation Council, to discuss the fight against "extremism".

Announcing the meeting, the Saudi foreign ministry said the "historic summit" should be the start to "building a partnership between the Arab and Muslim worlds and the United States at various levels".

INTERACTIVE: A timeline of US-Saudi relations

Trump is expected to give a speech on Islam, calling for unity in the fight against "radicalism" and characterising the effort as a "battle between good and evil", the AP reported, citing a draft of his speech.

The US president will avoid tough anti-Muslim rhetoric from his presidential campaign, as well as mentions of democracy and human rights, according to the draft of the speech, which remains subject to revision, AP said.

According to Al Jazeera's Bays, the meeting will also include talks on Trump's promise to restart peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.

"Everyone agrees that a fresh approach could be helpful in solving this long-running conflict and President Trump certainly brings that - but Arab leaders will want to hear more than optimism, they'll want to know the US president's plan to move forward," Bays said.

READ MORE: Five things to know about Donald Trump's first foreign trip

After the visit in Saudi Arabia, Trump will head to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories where he will meet his "friend" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem.

There are no plans for Trump to bring the two leaders together, a senior US official told the Reuters news agency, saying the administration does not believe it is the "right time just yet".

Trump will then fly to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis, who has said he will give the US president an open-minded hearing, despite differences in belief on everything from climate change to policies towards refugees.

Trump will later meet members of NATO in Brussels and attend a G7 summit in Italy.

OPINION: The US' never-ending days of reckoning

The foreign trip comes as Trump faces growing criticism at home.

As the US president jetted off to Saudi Arabia, reports by US media emerged that a senior adviser to Trump was a "person of interest" in a probe of possible collusion with Russia during last year's election campaign and that the US president had boasted to Russian officials after firing former FBI Director James Comey earlier this month.

On Thursday, Trump also denounced the announcement of special counsel to conduct an independent investigation into the alleged Russian meddling in the election and possible collusion with Trump's team.
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and United States President Donald Trump hold a telephone conversation discussing the incidents.