(JTA) — Since the early months of the Trump administration, Jared Kushner, the Jewish son-in-law of President Donald Trump and his adviser on the Middle East, had private, informal conversations with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.
The ties between the two men were cultivated by the prince and his advisers over the course of more than two years, The New York Times reported Sunday, citing documents, emails and text messages reviewed by its reporters.
The documents show that the two men were on a first-name basis, calling each other Jared and Mohammed in text messages and phone calls.
In addition to offering to help resolve the Israel-Palestinian question, the Saudis offered hundreds of billions of dollars in deals to buy American weapons and invest in American infrastructure, according to the report.
The crown prince has been accused of being behind the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
