Riyadh (Somalia Today) – Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler is privately urging US President Donald Trump to sustain the military offensive against Iran, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has framed the US-Israeli campaign as a “historic opportunity” to topple Tehran’s hardline government, according to people briefed on the discussions.
In a series of recent conversations, the crown prince has pressed Trump to push toward the total destruction of the Iranian regime, arguing it is the only way to eliminate a long-term existential threat to the Gulf, according to people briefed by American officials.
The revelation underscores the immense geopolitical stakes of the three-week-old conflict, arriving as Trump swings unpredictably between threatening further escalation and signalling a swift end to the war.
Prince Mohammed, an authoritarian royal who has heavily influenced Trump’s past decision-making, has reportedly advocated drastic measures.
According to the Times, he has argued that the United States should consider deploying ground troops into Iran to seize its energy infrastructure and physically force the government out of power.
Trump has recently given serious consideration to a military operation involving airborne Army forces or an amphibious Marine assault to capture Kharg Island.
Located in the Persian Gulf, Kharg Island is the beating heart of Iran’s energy sector, handling approximately 90 percent of the country’s crude oil exports.
Choking Hormuz
The push for regime change carries colossal economic risks for the kingdom.
Iranian retaliatory drone and missile strikes, launched in response to the American-Israeli assault, have already severely disrupted global markets and effectively choked off the Strait of Hormuz.
The vast majority of Saudi, Emirati, and Kuwaiti oil must pass through the strategic maritime chokepoint to reach international buyers.
To mitigate the blockade, Saudi Arabia has activated its 1,200-kilometre (750-mile) East-West Pipeline, also known as Petroline, to route crude across the desert to the Red Sea port of Yanbu.
However, the pipeline’s maximum capacity of roughly seven million barrels per day cannot fully offset the 20 million barrels that normally transit Hormuz. These critical alternative routes have also increasingly come under attack.
Saudi Arabia is rapidly depleting its global stockpile of Patriot missile interceptors to defend its cities and refineries from the daily barrages.
The Iranian attacks have already struck a Saudi refinery and the US embassy, killing two Bangladeshi migrant workers and injuring more than a dozen foreign residents.
Failed state fears
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shares the goal of neutralising Iran, their post-war visions fundamentally diverge.
Analysts note that Israeli officials might accept a chaotic, failed Iranian state that is too consumed by internal turmoil to threaten Israel.
Conversely, Riyadh views a fractured, stateless Iran as a grave security threat.
Saudi officials fear that, in a power vacuum, rogue military elements or heavily armed proxy militias would emerge and immediately focus their attacks on the kingdom’s oil installations.
Officially, Riyadh vehemently denies pushing to prolong the conflict.
“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has always supported a peaceful resolution to this conflict, even before it began,” the Saudi government said in a statement, adding that its primary concern is defending civilian infrastructure.
“Iran has chosen dangerous brinkmanship over serious diplomatic solutions,” the statement read. “This harms every stakeholder involved, but none more than Iran itself.”
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, declined to address the Times report, saying the administration “does not comment on the president’s private conversations”.
Shattered détente
The current warfare marks a violent collapse of the fragile diplomatic détente between Riyadh and Tehran brokered by China in early 2023.
That landmark agreement re-established relations after years of proxy battles, largely because Saudi officials realised their security alliance with the United States offered only partial protection from Iranian aggression.
Saudi views remain heavily shaped by the trauma of a 2019 Iran-backed drone and missile attack on the Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities, which temporarily knocked out half of the kingdom’s total oil production.
Analysts suggest the crown prince’s hawkish private stance stems from a fear of abandonment.
If Trump pulls back prematurely, Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbours could be left to face an emboldened, furious Iran on their own.
“Saudi officials certainly want the war to end, but how it ends matters,” said Yasmine Farouk, director of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula project at the International Crisis Group.
A half-finished offensive, analysts warn, would leave Iran with enough surviving military infrastructure to continue harassing Saudi Arabia and periodically close the Strait of Hormuz.
Vision 2030 at risk
A prolonged conflict also directly threatens Prince Mohammed’s flagship Vision 2030 initiative, a sweeping economic reform programme designed to transform the kingdom into a global business and tourism hub.
The country is already forecasting budget deficits for several years as it pours vast resources into ambitious megaprojects and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The prince’s ultimate domestic success hinges on creating a secure, stable environment for foreign investors, a goal that an endless regional war would render impossible.
Asked last week whether the Saudi government preferred an immediate end to the war or a longer conflict that permanently degraded Iran’s capabilities, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan insisted the sole priority was halting the violence.
“We’re going to use every lever we have — political, economic, diplomatic and else-wise — to get these attacks to stop,” Prince Faisal told reporters.
