Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has reportedly been urging US President Donald Trump to “continue hitting the Iranians hard" during frequent direct conversations between the two leaders, as the US-Israel war against Iran enters its third week, according to a New York Times report published Sunday.
The advice, according to several officials cited by the NYT, mirrors a longstanding Saudi strategic position. It is almost word-for-word the same guidance that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who died in 2015, repeatedly gave to Washington: “Cut off the head of the snake."
White House officials confirmed to the NYT on condition of anonymity that Trump has been talking regularly to Arab leaders throughout the conflict, with MBS being particularly prominent among them. The Saudi crown prince, who effectively runs the kingdom’s foreign and defence policy, has reportedly been among the loudest voices pushing Washington to press forward rather than pull back.
This matters because the US is at a crossroads right now. Trump is in his third week of a war he chose to launch alongside Israel against Iran. The conflict has killed more than 2,100 people, including 13 Americans. It has sent oil prices toward $100 a barrel, choked off the Strait of Hormuz, and rattled global markets. And Trump, by his own administration’s account, has not yet achieved his core objectives. Iran’s nuclear fuel stockpile remains inside Iranian territory. The new leadership in Tehran, apparently led by Ayatollah Khamenei’s son, has sworn to keep fighting.
In that context, having MBS in his ear urging him to “keep hitting" carries real weight. Saudi Arabia and Iran have been regional rivals for decades, with a sectarian, political and economic rivalry that maps almost perfectly onto the Sunni-Shia divide across the Middle East. A weakened or destabilised Iran is, by almost every measure, a Saudi strategic win.
But, there is a catch. The same conflict that MBS is reportedly encouraging Trump to sustain has already produced drone strikes on oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Iranian-backed attacks on energy facilities in both countries followed Israel’s decision to hit oil storage tanks near Tehran, against direct US advice, roughly a week ago. The war that Riyadh appears to be quietly cheering on is also flying shrapnel into its own backyard.
Trump, for his part, has publicly oscillated. He has said the war is nearly won, then swivelled and acknowledged that there is “heavy fighting ahead." He told reporters he will know when to get out by feel, that he would “feel it in my bones." Whether he makes that call based on military assessments, domestic political pressure from his own base, or the counsel of a Saudi prince who wants Iran broken, remains to be seen.
