Trump, MBS to sign deal on civil nuclear cooperation — source

Trump says Saudis will get F-35s, bucking Israeli hope he’d condition sale on peace

US president makes announcement day before MBS arrives in DC to meet him; Trump still expected to raise Abraham Accords, but Saudi Arabia sticking to Palestinian statehood demand

US President Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that Washington will be selling F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, whose Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was set to visit the White House on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump was asked whether he would move ahead with the deal after saying last week that he was considering it.

“Yeah, I am planning on doing it. They’ve been a great ally… We’ll be selling F-35s,” Trump responded, claiming Riyadh was also pleased with Washington for the latter’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear program in June.

Israel is thought to not oppose such a sale in principle, while hoping that the US would condition it on Saudi Arabia agreeing to join the Abraham Accords.

But Riyadh has long conditioned such a move on Israel agreeing to establish a pathway to a future Palestinian state, which the current Netanyahu government has refused to do.

Trump is still expected to raise the issue with bin Salman on Tuesday.

The Axios news site reported last week that, in a phone call in October, Trump urged bin Salman to normalize relations with Israel in the wake of that month’s Gaza ceasefire deal.

The call took place after the October 13 Sharm El Sheikh Peace Conference, where Trump and counterparts from fellow mediating countries Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt signed a declaration on a peace plan for Gaza, Axios reported.

During the call, Trump said he had succeeded in ending the war in Gaza and expected Saudi Arabia to move toward full diplomatic ties with Israel, according to a US official cited in the report. The crown prince, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, widely known as MBS, said he would be willing to work with the White House on the matter, the official said.

But a senior Palestinian Authority official close to PA President Mahmoud Abbas told The Times of Israel on Monday that Saudi Arabia had assured Ramallah in closed-door talks that it would not normalize ties with Israel before the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 lines.

“They told us they will not abandon the Palestinians. Resolving the Palestinian issue is the gateway to normalization with Israel,” the official said.

The PA official added that Ramallah trusted the Saudi commitment and was not worried about a shift in Riyadh’s position, despite past normalization agreements signed by several Gulf states under the Abraham Accords.

“Saudi Arabia’s position is stable: first a solution, then normalization,” the PA official said.

The New York Times reported last week that there are concerns in the American intelligence community that the F-35’s sensitive technology could reach China, while also upsetting the balance of power in the Middle East.

Another potential area of concern for US intelligence and defense officials is the possibility that selling the fighter jets to Saudi Arabia will harm Israel’s military dominance in the Middle East, the Times reported.

The US has long ensured that Israel maintains a “qualitative military edge” over its neighbors by selling it more advanced US weapons than regional Arab states.

The F-35, built with stealth technology that allows it to evade enemy detection, is considered the world’s most advanced fighter jet. Israel has operated the aircraft for nearly a decade, building multiple squadrons, and remains the only Middle Eastern country to possess the weapons system.

In another area of past contention, a source familiar with negotiations said that Trump and the prince would sign a deal on a framework for civilian nuclear cooperation.

Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s top oil producers, says it wants to diversify from fossil fuels and is looking for the advanced US technology available from a so-called “123 agreement.”

But such agreements are subject to tight rules against proliferation, and US Congress would be expected to scrutinize any full accord.

Saudi Arabia says it is not seeking nuclear weapons and it recently entered an enhanced defense partnership with Pakistan, a nuclear power.

Bin Salman departed on Monday for the United States, where he is likely to press for security guarantees, in addition to the advanced weaponry.

The visit to Washington will be his first since the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents prompted worldwide outrage and briefly upended ties with the kingdom’s longtime ally.

Prince Mohammed has fostered close ties with Trump and his family over the years — a relationship that was burnished by a lavish welcome and $600 billion in investment pledges when the US president visited Saudi Arabia in May.

Riyadh is seeking firmer US security guarantees after Israeli strikes in September on Qatar, an iron-clad US ally, unnerved the wealthy Gulf region.

A US-Saudi investment forum spotlighting energy and artificial intelligence will take place in the US capital during the prince’s three-day visit.

Agencies contributed to this report.