RIYADH: The United States agreed on Tuesday to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142 billion, according to a White House fact sheet that called it “the largest defense cooperation agreement” Washington has ever done.
The agreement, signed during U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to the Saudi capital Riyadh, covers deals with more than a dozen U.S. defense companies in areas including air and missile defense, air force and space advancement, maritime security and communications, the fact sheet said.
“The package signed today, the largest defense cooperation deal in U.S. history, is a clear demonstration of our commitment to strengthening our partnership,” the fact sheet said.
Reuters first reported last month that the arms package would be worth well over $100 billion.
Reuters previously reported that Lockheed Martin Corp was expected to sell C-130 transport aircraft, missiles and radars as part of the deal. CEOs from RTX Corp Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp were expected to be in the kingdom, but the White House did not verify any specific equipment or makers as a part of the potential sale to Saudi.
Reuters could also not immediately establish how many of the deals on offer were new. Many have been in the works for some time, sources have told Reuters.
Saudi Arabia is the largest customer for U.S. arms. In 2017, Trump proposed approximately $110 billion of sales to the kingdom.
As of 2018, only $14.5 billion of sales had been initiated and Congress began to question the deals in light of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration tried unsuccessfully to finalize a defense pact with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisioned Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel.
The White House fact sheet did not mention if Riyadh would be permitted to purchase Lockheed’s F-35 jets, the military aircraft that the kingdom has reportedly been interested in for years.
The two countries had discussed Riyadh’s potential purchase of Lockheed’s F-35 jets, two sources briefed on discussions told Reuters.
However, it was not clear if Washington would permit the kingdom to move forward with a purchase that would give Saudi Arabia an advanced weapon used by close U.S. ally Israel, one of the sources said.
The second source said the qualitative military edge, or U.S. guarantees that Israel receives more advanced American weapons than Arab states, is an issue that “has come up.”
The sources spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Israel has owned F-35s for nine years, building multiple squadrons.
Governments in the Gulf have long sought the most advanced fighter jet, built with stealth technology allowing it to evade enemy detection. If the U.S. did approve the transfer, Saudi Arabia would be only the second Middle East state after Israel to operate F-35 fighters. (Reporting by Pesha Magid in Riyadh and Mike Stone in Washington; Writing by Andrew Mills; Editing by Mark Potter, David Gregorio and Andrea Ricci)
