Trump said he was reviewing the request after discussions with Saudi officials. “I’m looking at that. They’ve asked me to look at it. They want to buy a lot of ’35’ but they want to buy actually more than that, fighter jets.”
The potential sale comes as Trump prepares to host Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House next week. They are expected to sign economic and defence agreements during the visit.
Asked about the talks, Trump told reporters it was “more than meeting, we’re honoring” Saudi Arabia. He also said he hoped the kingdom would join the Abraham Accords, which have normalised relations between Israel and Muslim majority states.
Riyadh has said earlier this year that normalisation would not proceed without a path to Palestinian statehood. Before Israel’s launch of its war on Gaza in October 2023, Saudi Arabia was believed to be seeking a security deal with Washington in return for normalisation with Israel.
Global outrage over the war, which UN experts and rights groups have considered a genocide, has affected those discussions. Normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia is now viewed in the region as a distant prospect.
Source: Reuters.
