impact you. coming up sunday morning author and historian gary graff on the career of robert mueller, appointed special counsel to oversee the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. then the university of virginia researcher kenny hughes will discuss the history of past presidents who secretly recorded conversations in the oval office. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal, linux and eastern sunday morning. join the discussion. president trump is in saudi arabia this weekend with his trunk and senior -- with mrs. trump and senior white house officials. he held a joint news conference with his saudi counter arts to discuss bilateral relations. this is 30 minutes.

>> good evening, everyone. >> you know our country and our region extremely well and i believe your country is fortunate to have you as secretary of state. we in the region still fortunate having you at the helm of the state department. betweens a historic day the kingdom of saudi arabia and the united states and the

beginning of a turning point between the united states and the arab and islamic world. -- hisesty, the custody messy and president donald trump signed a joint strategic operation which sets the stage for a truly strategic relationship between our two countries. our relationships will evolve into a more strategic ownership, it will deal with ways to cooperate in terms of violent extremism, financing of terrorism, increasing defense capabilities, working on a defense architecture for the and then looking at how other countries can join the strategic vision that also includes trade and investment education and working in all to enhance our common

interest and deal with the challenges that face both of our countries. this is unprecedented, we've not had an agreement signed by the kingdom of saudi arabia and the president to codify the relationship. this is a great compliment. in addition to the signing of this strategic vision declaration, the two countries signed a series of agreements, but commercial and government that involve trade investment, that involve infrastructure, that involve technology, that involves a defense sales, that involves saudi investment in --rican infrastructure and

i will not get into the details. we expect these investments over the next 10 years or so would provide hundreds of thousands of jobs in the united states and saudi arabia. it will lead to a transfer of technology from the u.s. to saudi arabia, enhance our economy. >> they discussed of the scourge of terrorism, extremism and how we can work together to eradicated. they discuss the terrorist activities of iran and the fact

that action has to be taken to make sure iran has not continued with the aggressive policies in the region. sees --as years into the un security council in regard to ballistic missiles and in its human rights violations. they discussed the situation in syria, the importance of working towards peace. the custodian of the two holy --a newdiscussed at the approach and determination can bring a conclusion to this long conflict. he has the vision and the strength and decisiveness.

thinking of mr. hurray to work with the united states in order to bring about peace between israelis and palestinians and with israelis and arabs. they discussed trade and investment. where the great lunch conversation began before the meeting. a visit is a truly historic visit. we are very honored that president trump chose to come to the kingdom of saudi arabia on his first visit and we look for tomorrow to posting the summit in saudi arabia and the arab-islamic american summit which is historic and unprecedented and brings together the islamic world with the united states into partnership and begins to change the conversation from one of enmity to one of partnership. step has and historic the potential for changing our world.

if we can change the conversation in the islamic --fromrom in the best partnership, we would have truly changed our world. we will have drain the swamps from which extremism and terrorism emanate. i cannot overstate the importance of such a gathering and i think after this visit the president will go to israel and to go to the vatican where he will address of the jewish world and the christian world and try to bring together the three major monotheistic religions in the world into a partnership so that we move from any discussion -- so that we moved to a discussion of a partnership of civilization. i want to stop here and let rex tillerson indulge.

welcome to the kingdom of saudi arabia. congratulations on an extremely productive visit. >> thank you and thank all of you for being here this evening and in particular i want to thank my longtime friend and colleague, the foreign minister. we've known each other for many years when our facial features were much younger. we remember those days but we have remained friends for all these many years and now colleagues. really proud to be here today with him to talk about this in the strengthening of the u.s.-audi partnership and relationship -- u.s.-saudi relationship. -- a is a story moment historic moment. the united states and the key number of saudi arabia are dedicating ourselves to a new strategic partnership and charting a new towards a peaceful middle east where

economic development, trade, the premises are hallmarks of regional and global engagement and something we will be working together on. this growing partnership is really grounded interest. trust between our two nations that we are pursuing the same objectives. cooperation and a shared interest. the elements of this declaration that was signed, there are many elements. s toe are a lot of work implement of those elements and put them into motion. that is going to require significant ongoing engagement between our two nations and i think you'll find that we will be meeting with a great deal of regularity to see how these things are progressing and that is only going to turn further for our cooperation. it sends a message to our common enemies. it strengthens the bond between

us and will guide our way force. the core of our expanding relationship really are our shared security interest. america's security at home is by saudi arabia the secure as well. we are embarking on a new initiative to counter violent extremists messaging. we are also going to be pursuing new approaches to disrupting the financing of terrorism and advancing cooperation. today the united states and saudi arabia are conducting vital new expansions of security relationship that span over seven decades. one of the real hallmarks of today is the economic cooperation. if you have strong economic engagement between two countries, that is foundational to a strong security

relationship as well. as you heard the foreign minister mentioned, today we announced 23 foreign investment export licenses leading to upwards of $350 billion of his story direct investment. when hundred 9 billion of that is in arms sales to bolster the security of our saudi partners. these are going to result in literally hundreds of thousands of american jobs that are created by these direct investment in purchases of american goods, american equipment, american technology but also investment into the ,ingdom of saudi arabia as well and this is an indication of the confidence saudi arabia has in the united states investment climate. what they are seeing already are the positive impacts of president trump's actions to

improve the business climate in the u.s. for investment and job creation and they intend to be a part of that. this is a great vote of confidence in the united states in the business environment in the keenum of saudi arabia as they continue to advance in their own reforms and seek opportunities for their own people to create jobs as well. strong economic relationships are the foundation for strong security relationship as well. the intended sales of the defense packages in particular fall into five broad categories, were security and counterterrorism, maritime coastal security, air force modernization, cyber security and communications upgrade and i think you can identify in all of these the importance that all those areas have to u.s. national security as well. along with this will go a lot of training and support to strengthen our partnership with

the saudi armed forces as well. the package of defense equipment and services supports security and saudi arabia and the entire gulf region, in particular in the face of the line -- malign iranian influence that exist on saudi arabian borders. the important part of this is this huge ourselves package reduces the burden on the united states to provide the equipment to our own military forces and will strengthen saudi security and forces for the future so that saudi arabia is more capable of carrying a greater share of the burden of their on security, which i indicated is part of the u.s. national security as well. it lowers the demands on our own military but also lowers the

cost to the american people by providing security in this region. extremely important to the future of the relationship but also important to the cause of surprising -- of providing security for american citizens in this region. i think the other important announcement which i will just mention was at the new counterterrorism initiative, the new global center for combating extremist ideology which will be opened in riyhad. defeating a hub for the feeding isis in cyberspace. this is how they message to lone wolfs around the world.

experts of that live in this part of the world and understand how to message those who might be influence. i partners in the gulf cooperation council will be signing a new agreement tomorrow to close gaps in many of these areas including financial infrastructure that terrorists can export and we commend them do forgetting terrorists to financial operations in their country. all these new initiatives will bolster our joint efforts to deter regional threats from iran and syria, iran and yemen and a long saudi arabia's borders. we are very proud of this relationship that we are embarking upon with the kingdom

and are very appreciative of the leadership of his royal highland -- his royal highness king solomon in putting these initiatives for. we've had a very historic day-to-day. -- day today. >> a few questions? >> mr. secretary? >> you said earlier in your briefing that saudi arabia and the united states share objectives, having said that, are there any crucial actions that will be announced taking towards iran? >> we're closely coordinating

our efforts in terms of how to extremism, it support for foreign fighters, it's payment of foreign fighters, it support of militia. they are operating not just in but in iraq and syria. agreement is to be used to contain iran's nuclear aspirations. we have a group that is focused on yemen, we have a group of like-minded focused on syria. the leadership starts here in the kingdom with the strong leadership of his royal highness as well as the deputy crown prince and certainly be foreign minister. they have been wonderful and strong conveners of others who

are like-minded in terms of this fight against terrorism broadly role inifically iran's supporting extremist organizations. questions, will you ever pick up the phone and call iran's foreign minister? yemen, how will selling for and weapons to saudi arabia helped bring an end to that brutal war? what -- [indiscernible] >> in terms of whether i would ever pick the phone up, i've never shut off the phone to anyone that wants to talk or have a productive conversation. at this point i have no plans to

call my counterpart in iran although in all likelihood we will talk at the right time. in terms of the situation in yemen, our emphasis is on finding a political solution. we view it as a tragic situation , obviously millions of people on the brink of starvation because of the impact of the fighting but we also think it is important to put the pressure on parties to come to the table and talk. i want to make it clear that we have efforts underway on both fronts. andink the rebels in yemen those who have taken over the knownment in yemen have to they cannot sustain this fight. they will never prevail militarily but they are only going to feel that when they feel the resistance militarily so it is important to keep the

pressure on them and many of the armaments we are providing to saudi arabia will help them be much more precise and targeted with many of their strikes but it is important that pressure be cap on the -- pressure be kept o n the rebels in yemen. we are actively engaged to see advancennot invent -- to bring this to a halt politically. >> rids regard to the reelection , does it matter what president they have, we judge iran by its actions and not by its words. they want to have better relations with us but then they

assassinate our diplomats, they plant terrorist cells in my country and in countries allied to us and they supply militias that would destabilize countries. they intervene and meddle in the affairs of arab countries like iraq, syria, lebanon and yemen. they created the world's most foremost terrorist organization hezbollah. they provide comfort and support for al qaeda. they have a relationship with the taliban that destabilizes afghanistan. military -- the heads of the plot escape to iran.

>> this is not the behavior of a country that wants others to treat them with respect. this is the state sponsor of isrorism who deservedly sanctioned by the international community for this behavior. if i ran wants to be on a normal country and others to treat it like a normal country has to act in accord with international law the values and the rules of the international system that has existed for centuries. we welcome and i ran that is open to the world and lives in peace with its neighbors. we welcome around that doesn't interfere in the affairs of other countries. this is not the iran we see. the we think about reelection? we want to cede deeds, not words. we will continue to judge iran based on its deeds and base our policy based on iran's deeds.

if i may say something about that wehe perception is are fighting in yemen for a reason, or that we have no objective or no goals. people forget how this started. saudi arabia work together to come up with the gcc initiative which created the transition. yemen was in a transitional period. students, travel people with different religious sects. they come up with the blueprint for what the should look forward going forward. rights for everyone. they rewind to codify that insulate constitution. then they staged a coup. they attacked the city. they seized the government into

total control of a country that is critically important to the security of the region. now we have a radical militia allied with iran and hezbollah oversition that has taken a friendly government. we intervened. we have said there is no military solution. the solution is political. they have to go back to the implement -- the negotiating table. less than 50,000. in a country of 28 million. it is unacceptable that they would be allowed to seize power and get away with it. we and a coalition of countries have been fighting to restore the legitimate government of yemen which is in control of 80% of the territory. we have made mistakes and acknowledge those. we have investigated those. we have been charged with things

that we didn't do. we were supposed to have attacked a wedding. it never took place. we were supposed to have destroyed planes. these chargers per leveled at the kingdom and the coalition. they were not correct. the image prevailed that we were waging an aggressive for against the country. they were remote -- made to look like victims. they started this. they logged 40 ballistic missiles at our towns and cities. it is they who have violated thousands of times cease-fire arrangements put in place. it is they who have made 70 agreements and reneged on more than -- on every single one of them. when it comes to assist in saudi arabia has been the largest provider of him in and assistance to yemen. the areas under government

control have no problem distributing aid. they steal the aid. they sell it to fund their war machine. the starvation exist because they laid siege on towns that will not allow air supplies to get in. that is why people are starving. not because of the bombing. starvation is because they steal thes coming in and sell products to fund their war machine. we have submitted aid to every area that we can. we are running the largest hospital. the hospital that the kingdom built 30 years ago and has been operating &'s in order to help the communities. it has been operating even through the hostilities. to fallnot allow iran to a radical militia.

we know what that ends up looking like when we look at the past in our region. re-appreciate the position of the trump administration in terms of providing support for and so far. appreciate and we believe that because of this support we will be able to put enough pressure to bring them to the negotiating table and make an agreement based on the gcc initiative and even security council 2260. [an audible question -- in audible question]

>> it is unprecedented. the president of the united states signing an agreement on -- that outlines a vision for how we want to elevate an already strategic relationship to an even higher level. we want to intensify the cooperation. whether it is in defense or technology for education. whether it is an investment. we want to create a mechanism headed by both the president or whatever they designate that would be a group that would meet periodically in order to see how we can implement a lot of the visions or strategies that we have. the expectation is that the united states is the largest

ambassador in the kingdom of saudi arabia. exxon mobil is the largest single investor. the kingdom of saudi arabia has been a good home for american investment. american investors have transfer technology to the kingdom or provided jobs, who have helped small and midsize businesses gain work and technology and jobs. this is very good. the vision and economic ,greements that were signed they will increase american investment and will provide more opportunity for saudi individuals and medium-size businesses to benefit from those investments including technology transfer as american people will

benefit from saudi investments in the united states which will again provide hundreds of thousands of jobs. i have -- this is a truly historic summit. this is a turning point in the relationship that will take it from a strategic relationship and partnership towards a truly strategic relationship and partnership. >> last question. say if rouhani will change anything and i ran? would you be able to say, does the white house know who the person of interest in being investigated in the rush investigation? will answer both of those. i do not have information or knowledge regarding the person of interest referenced.

i might comment on the iranian elections as well. thati would hope is rouhani now has a new term and he uses that term to begin a process of dismantling iran's network of terrorism, dismantling its financing of their terrorist network, dismantling the logistics and everything that they provide to destabilizing forces that exist in this region. that is what we hope he does. we hope he puts an end to their ballistic missile testing. we hope that he restores the rights of iranians to freedom of speech, to freedom of organization so that iranians and live the life they deserve. that is what we hope the election will bring. i'm not going to comment on my expectation. but we hope if you wanted a change, those are the things he

could do. >> as a sign of how strategic are partnership is, i agree on both aspects. >> a look now at president trump's arrival in saudi arabia with the first lady and senior white house officials, and the highlights from the first day. at the saudi royal court where the king of saudi arabia hosted a ceremony and honored president trump with the nations highest civilian honor.

[ceremonial trumpets]

[inaudible conversation]

>> the bonds between saudi arabia and united states of america, and an appreciation of , for president donald trump, the president of the united states of america, his efforts to strengthen the relations between their countries and various feels -- fields and to enhance security and peace in the region and the conference,istoric

on president donald trump of the united states. [applause] [applause]

[drums] singing]

[applause] [group singing] >> while in

saudi arabia president trump is scheduled to give a major speech in which he will call for unity with u.s. allies in the middle east. the president visits israel and meets with pope francis in vatican city before heading to nato and g-7 meetings. watch continuing coverage of the president's trip. in his weekly address the president gives us a preview of his first overseas trip. david cicilline gives his reaction and talks about the democratic agenda. trump: my fellow americans, a new optimism is sweeping our country as we return power from washington and