Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will press for security guarantees while US President Donald Trump will urge him to normalise ties with Israel when the de facto Saudi ruler breaks a seven-year absence from Washington this week.

Saudi Arabia is unlikely to agree to normalisation at this stage, with Prince Mohammed's priority set for firmer US security guarantees after Israeli strikes in September on Qatar, an iron-clad US ally, rattled the wealthy Gulf region.

"For the Saudis, the goal of this trip... appears to be threefold: to elevate, consolidate, and facilitate security and defence cooperation," wrote Aziz Alghashian from the Washington-based think tank Arab Gulf States Institute.

The 40-year-old heir to the throne is making his first US visit since the 2018 murder of Washington Pos

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