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Washington Post

Everyone keeps saying they want peace in the Middle East, right? Well, memo to Saudi Arabia and President Trump: This isn\u2019t the way to do it.

Saudi Arabia has been making dramatic international headlines in recent months. The kingdom\u2019s 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (known as MBS) wants to introduce progressive reforms to his conservative nation. So far that has meant granting women the right to drive, envisioning plans for a futuristic city and trying to attract foreign investment. But MBS\u2019s version of reform has also meant the arrests of scores of elites, clerics, social media stars, princes. The kingdom, long dependent on oil wealth, says that it wants to crack down on corruption. But as a number of my colleagues have pointed out, the young prince\u2019s tactics mirror those of Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin or China\u2019s Xi Jinping. And in a country where the state and the royal family are one and the same, arrests and property seizures without meaningful legal reforms and transparency efforts will make MBS\u2019s anti-corruption moves little more than a headline-grabbing show of political force.

But the kingdom is risking stoking more geopolitical chaos in a region that can ill-afford it. Lebanon has become the latest front: Saad Hariri, the Lebanese prime minister, (who is also a Saudi citizen) resigned last weekend, announcing his departure from office in Riyadh, on Saudi state TV. Lebanese officials have accused Saudi Arabia of basically holding Hariri hostage, in what may be an effort to squeeze the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Hezbollah\u2019s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has said that Saudi Arabia has declared war on Lebanon and Hezbollah. You know things are getting heated when even Egypt\u2019s President Abdel Fatah Al-Sissi is telling Saudi Arabia to cool it on Hezbollah, saying the region can\u2019t support more turmoil. On top of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia has been boycotting Qatar, and the Saudi-led coalition continues to pound Yemen into a humanitarian mess.

Watch the video for more. Saudi Arabia is leaning heavily on the Trump card \u2014 relying on Trump\u2019s full-throated endorsment of MBS\u2019s actions. But Trump could be making a huge mistake by putting all of America\u2019s eggs in the reckless MBS\u2019s basket.