"We understand that and they understand that", said President Trump.

Longtime U.S. allies like the United Kingdom and South Korea have seen relations fray since President Donald Trump took office, but at least one nation sees its partnership growing tighter than ever: Saudi Arabia. Kushner, on the other hand, has been ensnared in considerable drama inside the White House and lost some of his standing because of an inability to secure a permanent security clearance. In November, Mohammed invited hundreds of Saudi leaders to Riyadh's Ritz Carlton Hotel where he had them arrested for stealing from the state.

Politically, MBS has forged a tight bond with Trump, nurtured by the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has visited the Kingdom several times.

Trump thanked the kingdom for its standing investments in the US, which a senior administration official tallied at approximately $12.3 billion in foreign direct investment as of 2016. Saudi concerns with NY include a post-9/11 law that could jeopardize assets in the United States if victims' families claim Saudi Arabia helped the al-Qaida attackers and sue for compensation. He underlined the need to preserve the rights of the Palestinians and to support the two-state solution.

Also high on the agenda in the White House talks was confronting Iran, a country Trump has repeatedly criticized for its expansionist policies in the Middle East.

Trump: We'll see what happens...but Iran has not been treating that part of the world or the world itself appropriately.

Prince Mohammed capped his rapid rise to power last June by replacing his elder cousin Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who had close relationships with USA intelligence and defense circles, as crown prince.

Trump and MBS will meet in the Oval Office on Tuesday and then sit down for a working lunch at the White House.

The conversation, according to senior administration officials, will focus on "Iran's aggression" in the Middle East and the support Russian Federation offers to both Iran and Syria. The two leaders view Iran as a threat to the Middle East region, making Saudi-U.S. relations a priority for the administration.

As for the moves in the US Congress to question Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen, Jubeir said that his country was seeking to correct some perceptions about the conflict in Yemen. Yemen is the latest such example where US forces provide logistical and intelligence support to a Saudi-led coalition of largely Gulf nations fighting to oust Houthi rebels from what was already the Arab world's poorest nation before the conflict began.

Just hours after the prince leaves the White House, Congress will vote on rules created to withdraw USA intelligence and reconnaissance support for the war. (This would include Raytheon, a USA defense contractor, being allowed to sell $7 billion worth of "smart bombs" to Saudi Arabia). He said he was restoring the more tolerant, egalitarian society that existed before Saudi Arabia's ultraconservatives were empowered in 1979. Saudi Arabia has come under harsh criticism at the United Nations for its lead role in the Yemen war and the resulting humanitarian disaster.

Senator Mike Lee, a Republican backer of the resolution, stressed that it had been in the works for some time, and was not timed "in any way, shape or form" to coincide with the Saudi crown prince's visit. Even South Korea, which has been at the center of Trump's biggest foreign policy crisis - North Korea's nuclear missile development - hasn't been spared from criticism of its trade deal with the U.S.

The crown prince, in a rare foray into speaking English, said on Tuesday the Saudi pledge for $200 billion in investments would end up at $400 billion when fully implemented.