Trump to meet Putin in Saudi Arabia for first meeting since taking office
Trump's announcement came after an almost 90-minute phone conversation with the Russian leader, where they discussed in ending the nearly three-year Moscow offensive in Ukraine.
'We ultimately expect to meet. In fact, we expect that he'll come here, and I'll go there, and we're gonna meet also probably in Saudi Arabia the first time, we'll meet in Saudi Arabia, see if we can get something something done,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
الرئيس ترامب يقول انه سيجتمع مع الرئيس الروسي بوتين في السعودية، لمناقشة إنهاء الحرب في أوكرانيا، بحضور ولي العهد السعودي الأمير محمد بن سلمان :
"بوتين وأنا نعرف ولي العهد جيداً، والسعودية ستكون المكان المناسب للقائنا الأول". pic.twitter.com/k7dXV1J67o
— محمد|MFU (@mfu46) February 12, 2025
A date for the meeting 'hasn't been set' but it will happen in the 'not too distant future,' the US president said.
He suggested the meeting would involve Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 'We know the crown prince, and I think it'd be a very good place to meet.'
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov earlier announced that Putin had invited Trump and officials from his administration to visit Moscow to discuss Ukraine.
'The Russian president invited the US president to visit Moscow and expressed his readiness to receive American officials in Russia in those areas of mutual interest, including, of course, the topic of the Ukrainian settlement,' Peskov said.
The invitation followed Trump's announcement Wednesday that peace talks would start 'immediately' and that Ukraine would probably not get its land back, causing uproar on both sides of the Atlantic.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
5 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
White House seeks fines from other universities after Columbia deal
The White House is seeking fines from several universities it says failed to stop antisemitism on campus, including Harvard University, in exchange for restoring federal funding, a Trump administration official said on Friday. The administration is in talks with several universities, including Cornell, Duke, Northwestern and Brown, the source said, confirming a report in The Wall Street Journal. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration is close to striking deals with Northwestern and Brown and potentially Cornell. A deal with Harvard, the country's oldest and richest university, is a key target for the White House, the official added. A spokesperson for Cornell declined to comment. Other universities did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump and his team have undertaken a broad campaign to leverage federal funding to force change at US universities, which the Republican president says are gripped by antisemitic and 'radical left' ideologies. Trump has targeted several universities since returning to office in January over the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled college campuses last year. Columbia University said on Wednesday it will pay more than $200 million to the US government in a settlement with the administration to resolve federal probes and have most of its suspended federal funding restored. The Trump administration has welcomed the Columbia deal, with officials believing the university set the standard on how to reach an agreement, the official said. Harvard has taken a different approach, suing the federal government in a bid to get suspended federal grants restored.
Al Arabiya
5 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Top US justice official questions Epstein accomplice for second day
The US Justice Department's deputy chief conducted a second day of questioning Friday with Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned accomplice of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose infamous case has dragged President Donald Trump into a political firestorm. Todd Blanche, who is also Trump's former personal attorney, has so far declined to say what he discussed with Maxwell in the highly unusual meetings between a convicted felon and a top DOJ official. Maxwell's lawyer David Markus said Friday afternoon that she was asked about 'everything' and 'answered every single question' during the second day of questioning at a courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida. 'They asked about every single, every possible thing you could imagine,' Markus told reporters outside the courtroom, without elaborating. But he did say there was 'no offers' of clemency made to Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence on sex trafficking charges. Trump is looking to move past the Epstein scandal, which has seen him on rare unsure footing over claims his administration mishandled a review of the notorious case. On Friday, Trump again sought to put distance between himself and Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. 'I have nothing to do with the guy,' Trump, whose past friendship with Epstein has received much media attention this week, told reporters ahead of a visit to Scotland. Trump urged journalists to 'focus' instead on Democratic Party figures like former president Bill Clinton and his treasury secretary, former Harvard president Larry Summers, whom the Republican claimed were 'really close friends' of Epstein. Asked whether he was considering a pardon or commutation of Maxwell's 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking, Trump said it was something 'I haven't thought about' – but stressed he had the power to do so. He also denied multiple US media reports that he was briefed in the spring by Attorney General Pam Bondi that his name appeared multiple times in the so-called 'Epstein Files.' 'No, I was never – never briefed, no,' Trump said. Multi-millionaire Epstein was accused of procuring underage girls for sex with his circle of wealthy, high-profile associates when he died by suicide in a New York jail cell. His death fueled conspiracy theories that he was murdered to stop him testifying against prominent accomplices. Trump, who had promised his supporters revelations about the case, infuriated some after his administration announced in early July that it had not discovered any new elements warranting the release of additional documents. The Department of Justice and the FBI said there was no proof that there was a 'list' of Epstein's clients, while affirming he died by suicide. Ahead of the second round of questioning, Markus told reporters 'Ghislaine has been treated unfairly for over five years now' and described her as a 'scapegoat.' 'Everything she says can be corroborated and she's telling the truth. She's got no reason to lie at this point and she's going to keep telling the truth,' he added. Maxwell, the only former Epstein associate who has been convicted, was jailed in 2022 for grooming underage girls between 1994 and 2004 so that Epstein could sexually exploit them. Her lawyer said she still intended to appeal her conviction in the Supreme Court. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Trump's name was among hundreds found during a DOJ review of Epstein's case files, though there has not been evidence of wrongdoing. Trump filed a $10 billion defamation suit against the Journal last week after it reported that he had penned a sexually suggestive letter to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson cut short the legislative session this week, sending lawmakers home on summer recess a day early to avoid potentially combustible debate – particularly among Trump's Republicans – on the release of files.
Asharq Al-Awsat
7 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Trade on Agenda as Trump Heads to Scotland for Diplomacy and Golf
US President Donald Trump departed for Scotland on Friday for a mix of diplomacy, business and leisure, as a huge UK security operation swung into place amid planned protests near his family-owned golf resorts. The president, whose mother was born in Scotland, is expected to split his time between two seaside golf courses bearing his name, in Turnberry on the southwestern coast and Aberdeen in the northeast. Air Force One was due to arrive around at 8:20 pm local time (1920 GMT) with the president and White House staff, and Trump has no public events scheduled for Saturday or Sunday, the White House said. However, he is due to meet with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the trip. "We're going to do a little celebrating together, because we got along very well," Trump told reporters as he left the White House Friday, calling Starmer "a good guy" doing "a very good job". He said they would discuss "fine tuning" the bilateral trade deal struck in May, and would "maybe even improve it". But the unpredictable American leader appeared unwilling to cede to a UK demand for flexibility over reduced steel and aluminium tariffs. Trump has exempted London from blanket 50 percent tariffs on imports of both metals, but the fate of that carve-out remains unclear. "If I do it for one, I have to do it for all," Trump told reporters, when asked if he had any "wiggle room" for the UK on the issue. The international outcry over the conflict in Gaza may also be on the pair's agenda, as Starmer faces growing pressure to follow French President Emmanuel Macron and announce that Britain will also recognize a Palestinian state. - Protests - Trump is expected to return to the UK in September for a state visit -- his second -- at the invitation of King Charles III, which promises to be lavish. During a 2023 visit, Trump said he felt at home in Scotland, where his mother Mary Anne MacLeod grew up on the remote Isle of Lewis before emigrating to the United States at age 18. Residents, environmentalists and elected officials have voiced discontent over the Trump family's construction of a new golf course, which he is expected to open before he departs the UK on Tuesday. Police Scotland, which is bracing for mass protests in Edinburgh and Aberdeen as well as close to Trump's golf courses, have said there will be a "significant operation across the country over many days". Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who will also meet Trump during the visit, said the nation "shares a strong friendship with the United States that goes back centuries". He added it would provide Scotland with a "platform to make its voice heard on the issues that matter, including war and peace, justice and democracy". Trump has also stepped into the sensitive debate in the UK about green energy and reaching net zero, with Aberdeen being the heart of Scotland's oil industry. In May, he wrote on his Truth Social platform that the UK should "stop with the costly and unsightly windmills" as he urged incentivizing drilling for oil in the North Sea.
