President Donald Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner apparently had a meeting on Monday with Saudi Arabia’s vice minister of defense even though the White House never made any announcement of the meeting.
Writing on Twitter, Saudi defense official Khalid bin Salman revealed that he met with Trump and Kushner “to deliver a message from the Crown Prince, and review aspects of our bilateral cooperation, including efforts to confront regional and international challenges.”
CBS News White House reporter Kathryn Watson says that the meeting with the Saudis “wasn’t on the president’s public schedule yesterday” and wonders, “would we have known about the meeting if the Saudis didn’t promote it?”
The meeting came at a time when the Trump administration has dramatically escalated military tensions with Iran by assassinating Iranian general Qassim Suleimani. Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been wary of being closely associated with America’s drone strike against Suleimani, and American allies in Europe have cautioned the president against further escalating tensions by attacking Iranian cultural sites.