The United States will always be a friend: the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman rejected US President Donald Trump's observation that Saudi Arabia would not stay more than two weeks without US help, saying the Gulf country , born long before America, can survive 2,000 years without being threatened.

However, Prince Salman downplayed any apparent divergence with the US leader, saying relations between the two allies remained strong.

"You have to accept that a friend says good and bad things, so you can not have 100% friends who say good things about you," he said. "You will have misunderstandings, so we have classified this in this category."

Prince Mohammed also dismissed Trump's claims that Washington "subsidizes" the kingdom's army. He insisted that the kingdom had always paid for American armaments.

"Since the beginning of relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States, we have bought everything with money."

Prince Mohammed said that he liked working with Trump. "We have done a lot in the Middle East, especially against extremism," he said.

"Daesh has disappeared in a very short time in Iraq and Syria, and many extremist stories have been demolished in the last two years."

He said that Trump and he has worked with more than 50 countries to agree on a common goal in the Middle East, which most countries follow.

He promised that the world could expect more social reforms in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking of Yemen, Prince Mohammed said the conflict would end as soon as possible. "We do not need that at our border, but, of course, we do not need a new Hezbollah in the Arabian Peninsula." No one wants to have Hezbollah in a strait by which about 15% of world trade goes through. "

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