{"id":579698,"date":"2025-11-19T04:39:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T04:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/579698\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T04:39:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T04:39:32","slug":"trump-says-us-will-sell-f-35-stealth-jets-to-saudis-as-prince-mohammed-visits-us-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/579698\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says US will sell F-35 stealth jets to Saudis as Prince Mohammed visits | US foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump is to welcome Saudi Arabia\u2019s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman<\/a> to Washington on Tuesday, in a red-carpet visit expected to result in the sale of highly advanced US F-35 fighter jets to the Gulf monarchy.<\/p>\n

The crown prince\u2019s arrival in Washington will be his first White House visit since the 2018 killing of the Washington Post journalist and critic of the kingdom Jamal Khashoggi. The CIA later determined<\/a> Khashoggi\u2019s murder was approved by the crown prince, leading to global condemnation.<\/p>\n

Trump has rehabilitated the relationship, and is expected to announce billions of dollars in deals with the 40-year-old prince, whose father, King Salman, is 89 and has retreated from public view.<\/p>\n

The US and Saudi leaders will hold discussions and end the day with a White House dinner, organised by the first lady, Melania Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been a great ally,\u201d Trump said of the Saudis on the eve of the visit, during which, he said, Washington would be selling F-35 stealth fighters. They are primarily manufactured by the US defence contractor Lockheed Martin and cost about $80m (\u00a360m) to $110m each.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Saudis will be spending a lot of money tomorrow on the US,\u201d a senior White House official told Reuters on Monday.<\/p>\n

The sale will mark the first delivery of the advanced fighter jets to a Middle Eastern state apart from Israel. Photograph: Axel Schmidt\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Khashoggi\u2019s widow said it was \u201cvery painful\u201d to hear about the trip. Hanan Elatr Khashoggi told CNN<\/a> that she had written to Trump asking for his help in reaching a financial settlement with Prince Mohammed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they look at the American values of human rights and [democracy] besides any economic ties and selling weapons,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is something missing,\u201d she added, which she said was \u201clooking for real justice\u201d.<\/p>\n

Khashoggi\u2019s dismembered body has never been found and Saudi authorities deny high-level involvement.<\/p>\n

The sale of the jets is also significant as it would mark the first delivery of the advanced fighter jets to a Middle Eastern state apart from Israel. For years, the US has exclusively supplied Israel with advanced weapons to give the country an advantage against its neighbours.<\/p>\n

A previous deal with the United Arab Emirates was also suspended, with concerns the technology could leak to China.<\/p>\n

But the politics of the Middle East have changed this century, with Gulf monarchies shifting their focus to Iran, which Riyadh considers its chief regional foe. Trump mentioned the Israeli-US bombardment of Iran this summer when talking about his friendship with Saudi Arabia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, some pro-Israel US Republicans are wary about upsetting the so-called \u201cqualitative military edge\u201d of Israel over its neighbours.<\/p>\n

In his first term, Trump pushed for formal commercial and diplomatic ties between Israel and Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates through an effort labelled the Abraham accords.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy and the birthplace of Islam, has not signed the accords but cooperates unofficially with Israel.<\/p>\n

In addition to the F-35 sales, it has been reported that Saudi Arabia will announce a multibillion-dollar investment in US artificial intelligence infrastructure. Riyadh has sought to diversify its economy away from oil.<\/p>\n

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump is to welcome Saudi Arabia\u2019s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman to Washington on Tuesday, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-579698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115574522863049355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}