May 22, 2017
Saudi Gazette report
 |
| US President Donald Trump delivers a speech at Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh on Sunday. — Reuters |
Riyadh — US
President Donald Trump said here on Sunday that the US seeks a “coalition of
nations” in the Middle East with the aim of “stamping out extremism.”
In his address to
the Arab Islamic American Summit, Trump pledged to “strengthen America’s oldest
friendships, and to seek new partners in pursuit of peace.”
In his first major
foreign policy address as president, he said that the fight against terrorism
“is not a battle between different faiths, different sects, or different
civilizations. This is a battle between those who seek to obliterate human life
and those who seek to protect it.”
He said that,
“terrorists don’t worship God. They worship death.”
He said the US is
prepared to stand with Muslim leaders in the fight against extremists, but that
those countries must take the lead.
He urged them to
drive extremists “out of your places of worship. Drive them out of your
community. Drive them out of your holy land.”
He promised “that
America will not seek to impose our way of life on others, but to outstretch
our hands in the spirit cooperation and trust.”
Trump’s address
Sunday was the centerpiece of his two-day visit to saudi Arabia, his first stop
overseas as president.
During a meeting of
more than 50 Arab and Muslim leaders, he sought to chart a new course for
America’s role in the region, one aimed squarely on rooting out terrorism.
“We are not here to
lecture. We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to
be, or how to worship,” Trump said.
“Instead, we are
here to offer partnership — based on shared interests and values — to pursue a
better future for us all.”
Trump was full of
praise for the history and culture of the Muslim world. He declared Islam “one
of the world’s great faiths.”
He said that the
overwhelming majority of victims of terrorist attacks are the “innocent people
of the Arab, Muslim and Middle Eastern nations.”
Trump said that “95
percent of the victims of terrorist attacks are themselves Muslims.”
He said that
terrorism must not only be measured by the number of dead, but the number of
“vanished dreams.”