Mohammed bin Salman\u2002<\/u><\/a>on Tuesday the sale could go ahead without announcing any breakthroughs in regional relations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cNo,\u201d Trump said, when asked if the sales were part of a broader security agreement. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have a deal. They\u2019ve going purchase F-35s. They\u2019re buying them from Lockheed and it\u2019s a great plane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another reporter noted that Israel had pushed to have the transaction be conditioned upon normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIsrael is aware and they\u2019re going to be very happy,\u201d Trump responded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also said the F-35s being sold to Saudi Arabia are \u201cgoing to be pretty similar\u201d to the caliber of Israel\u2019s fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The potential package of fifth-generation stealth fighters has prompted concerns among Israeli and some U.S. officials as it risks toppling Israel\u2019s so-called Qualitative Military Edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prince Mohammed and Trump said they discussed an expansion of the Abraham Accords, in which Israel during Trump\u2019s first term normalized relations with several smaller Arab states. But the crown prince suggested that Riyadh was not yet satisfied that Israel and Palestine are headed toward a two-state solution despite their Trump-brokered ceasefire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe want to be part of the Abraham Accords, but we want also to be sure that we secure a clear path of a two-state solution,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe talked about one state, two state. We talked about a lot of things,\u201d Trump added. \u201cIn a short period of time, we\u2019ll be discussing it further, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump said both Israel and Saudi Arabia deserve the best the U.S. has to offer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIsrael\u2019s a great ally, and I know they\u2019d like you to get planes of reduced caliber,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that makes you too happy \u2026 as far as I\u2019m concerned, I think they are both at a level where they should get top of the line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fighter jet sale comes as Trump said an agreement was reached on a defense pact with Saudi Arabia, a key ask for the kingdom but an agreement that falls short of a mutual defense treaty that would likely fail to gain Senate ratification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
thehill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Trump suggested that the United States would allow Saudi Arabia to purchase top-of-the-line F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin without any diplomatic conditions or security commitments. The Saudis have long desired the jets, seen as a bargaining chip in negotiations to normalize relations between Riyadh and Israel. But Trump said alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":50066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153],"tags":[26636,2477,1230],"class_list":["post-50065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military","tag-arabia","tag-saudi","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50067,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50065\/revisions\/50067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}