A letter to Donald Trump from Prince Turki bin Faisal

AP Photo / EPA / Reuters

On the occasion of Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud writes him a letter in The National

Dear President Trump,

After your remarkable and outstanding victory in an election campaign marked by lawfare waged against you and a fear-inspiring verbal assault aimed at the American people warning them not to vote for you, you prevailed against those challenges and the American people gave you their trust and confidence to lead them to what you promised to give them, a better America. You also overturned the Senate majority from the other party to yours and brought your party within striking distance of a House majority.

I am gratified that the American election system worked so smoothly and decisively to determine the winners from the losers, unlike the contentious one before.

These facts give your friends and allies around the world the confidence that your leadership will be as decisive as the election results and put to rest the arguments of those who contend America is on the wane.

You, Mr President, have much work ahead of you not only to look to the future but also to finish what you started the last time you occupied the White House.

I come from Saudi Arabia, and my country is surrounded by hot spots that require your immediate attention and the continuation of what you began before. When you left in January 2021, there was no war in Gaza, Iran and Israel were not firing missiles at each other, the Houthis were not interdicting shipping in Bab Al Mandab, there was no civil war in Sudan, and although Israel has decapitated the leadership of both Hamas and Hezbollah, the latter are still capable of killing Israeli soldiers and firing projectiles and other ordinance at Israel. In other words, we are in more turmoil than when you were in the West Wing. In Europe, the war in Ukraine is a bloodbath now, and a war of attrition will continue there if it is not stopped.

I believe God spared your life not only to deal with the situation inside the United States, which faces enormous challenges for you to overcome, but, because America is what it is, to work with your friends in Saudi Arabia and other friends you have in the area, to pursue what you started before: to bring PEACE, with capital letters, to the Middle East.

I recall to you that you yourself have said, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want peace. Peace in Palestine and between Israel and the rest of the Arab and Islamic worlds will deprive those who do not want peace of the justification for their warmongering and recruitment of youngsters to the machine of war and the false lure of martyrdom.

Before your first stay at the White House and until your return to it, America and other countries talked the talk about ending the bloodshed in the Middle East but they never walked the walk.

You have a chance now to do precisely that. Not only are the stars aligned for it, but your personal commitment to peace and your steadfast friends in our part of the world will work with you to accomplish that. Take advantage of the four years to come and work with King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman to open the doors to peace for all of us.

Respectfully,

Turki Al Faisal