Why Does Mohammed bin Salman Have No Inclination to Invest in Iran?

The official visit of the Saudi crown prince to Washington and his meeting with the President of the United States marks a turning point in the history of the Saudi kingdom.

According to Rokna, as the wealthiest country in the Islamic world, Saudi Arabia closed its doors to its Muslim brothers during the Arab Spring uprisings and the political and social crises in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, and several others — crises that forced millions into displacement, homelessness, and unemployment, whose negative consequences continue to affect many refugees living in Europe today. During the rise of ISIS in Iraq and the Levant, it also remained indifferent, or perhaps even secretly supported these movements.

After the death of King Abdullah, King Salman was officially chosen as the monarch of Saudi Arabia in January 2015. Mohammed bin Salman, King Salman's eldest son, was elevated to crown prince in 2017 and then assumed control of the national oil company Saudi Aramco. In 2022, Mohammed bin Salman became the successor to his father and simultaneously the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia.

Since his appointment as crown prince, bin Salman has implemented a series of social and economic reforms. Reducing the influence of Wahhabi religious institutions by limiting the authority of the religious police, improving women's rights, lifting the ban on women driving, and weakening the male guardianship system in 2019 were among the striking and innovative measures that shocked Saudi Arabia’s traditional-religious society.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy changed dramatically after bin Salman assumed power. He was the chief architect of the coalition’s intervention in Yemen’s civil war, which over the years caused widespread killing and destruction in Yemen, with thousands of Yemeni Muslims dying as a consequence of these indiscriminate attacks.

To develop national infrastructure and free the country from an oil-dependent economy, bin Salman introduced Vision 2030. The plan includes 80 projects and several megaprojects, each costing between 3 and 20 billion dollars.

Bin Salman's ambitions can be seen in the megaproject “NEOM,” which includes a planned city in the Tabuk province in northwestern Saudi Arabia and is expected to be habitable in the coming years. It is planned that the world’s most advanced technologies be employed in this city and that it become a center for international tourism.

It was also planned that this megaproject be completed by 2025 and that the first phase be operational, although it still faces difficulties because its cost is estimated at 500 billion dollars.

Bin Salman is making efforts to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil and invest in non-oil sectors, including tourism and services.

During his visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2025 — his first foreign and official trip in his second presidential term — Trump secured from bin Salman a commitment for 600 billion dollars of Saudi investment in the United States, a matter also raised during bin Salman’s recent visit to the White House.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country struggling with sanctions and lacking foreign investment, is not of interest to bin Salman as a destination for investment.

According to Bloomberg, the effort to end Saudi Arabia’s dependence on crude oil has led to major social and economic changes in the country. In the labor market, millions have gained formal employment, tourism has seen significant growth, and new industries — from electric vehicles to semiconductors — are expanding.

However, the economic diversification that has become the core of bin Salman’s Vision 2030 is progressing more slowly than Saudis had hoped. Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil revenues has largely remained at the same level as in 2016 and, in some respects, has even deepened.

Although the United States was among the critics of bin Salman in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi — an opponent of the Saudi government killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 — when it came to attracting foreign investment from bin Salman, the chief suspect in the Khashoggi killing, its welcoming of him at the White House demonstrated that the transactional nature of the U.S. presidency prioritizes economic interests. The U.S. president welcomed bin Salman as a prince in order to secure the investment commitment Saudi Arabia had made to the United States and ensure its implementation.

In this meeting, the Saudi crown prince announced a one-trillion-dollar investment in the United States. He also confirmed that he has a positive view of joining the Abraham Accords and normalizing relations with Israel.

Trump, who had previously stated that he agreed to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, confirmed during the meeting, in front of reporters, that he had reached an agreement with Mohammed bin Salman on U.S. security guarantees and that the F-35 models to be supplied to Riyadh would be identical to those used by Israel.

Trump told Mohammed bin Salman: “I know the Israelis want you to take lower-level fighter jets, but I don’t think you would be satisfied with that.” He emphasized that Saudi Arabia is a “very great ally” for the United States, adding: “Both Saudi Arabia and Israel are at a level where they should have the best type of fighter jets.”

In this regard, Trump’s welcoming of Ahmad al-Sharaa, the interim president of Syria (a man for whom the U.S. had previously offered a bounty), at the White House, removing him from the terrorism list, lifting Syria sanctions, and meeting with him in Saudi Arabia during Trump’s trip to Riyadh, shows that Trump prioritizes investment over human rights and personal relations — and this is the true nature of the United States.

A few days ago, the White House announced that the United States and Saudi Arabia had reached agreements during the Trump–Mohammed bin Salman meeting at the White House in the areas of civilian nuclear energy and defense, including the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Riyadh. During the state dinner, Trump also designated Saudi Arabia as a “major non-NATO ally.”

During his meeting with the Saudi crown prince, the U.S. president again claimed that Iran’s nuclear capacity had been completely destroyed in the U.S. attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, saying that these attacks had placed Riyadh in a very strong position.

Emphasizing his long-standing friendship with the Saudi crown prince and noting that the two have always stood on the same side when facing various issues, Trump said of the attacks: “We did an incredible job destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities. No one else could have done it, and no president would have done such a thing.