nuclear-news

Trump mulls inviting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to UN nuclear meeting, CBS News,  By KYLIE ATWOOD CBS NEWS September 20, 2018, In a show of President Trump’s staunch support of Saudi Arabia, his administration is mulling the possibility of having that nation’s young leader, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, speak at the U.S.-hosted UN Security Council meeting next week, according to sources familiar with its planning.But now that the U.S. agenda has shifted away from a narrow focus on Iran, pulling off this diplomatic showcase will be hard to finagle.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, initially declared that Mr. Trump would host a UN Security Council meeting on “to address Iran’s violations of international law” and its actions to sow instability in the region. But that meeting has since changed to focus more broadly on counter-proliferation……

The Trump administration holds the reins on the agenda for the meeting because the U.S. is chairing the Council this month. …..

If Iran had remained the focus, the country would have been offered a seat, and a voice, at the table. But now they will not, as administration officials wanted to avoid a possible confrontation between Mr. Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani. Now they say Mr. Trump will have more breathing room and, in theory, avoid getting bashed on the world stage for exiting the Iran deal.  ….

moving away from Iran as the meeting’s focus also makes it logistically more complicated to secure a role for Saudi Arabia, which is not a member of the Security Council……

As of now, Saudi Arabia has not been invited to partake in the discussion. When asked about the possibility of inviting another country to speak at the meeting, a Security Council diplomat explained that “in theory” it could happen, but was not certain it would.  ….

But even after avoiding an embarrassing barrage of criticism for exiting the Iran deal, some experts say that putting Mr. Trump at the helm is still risky.  … https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-mulls-inviting-saudi-crown-prince-mohammad-bin-salman-to-un-nuclear-meeting/