ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump said Monday he will move forward with selling F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, unveiling the decision on the eve of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s high-profile visit to Washington, his first trip to the United States in more than seven years.
Asked directly whether he intended to sell the advanced aircraft to the Kingdom, Trump replied, “I will say that we will be doing that.”
“We’ll be selling F-35s,” he added, during a media briefing in the Oval Office.
The sale is expected to be one of several major agreements announced during the crown prince’s visit, which comes as Trump intensifies efforts to encourage a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The president has repeatedly framed an expanded version of his first-term Abraham Accords as central to achieving long-term stability in the Middle East.
“I hope that Saudi Arabia will be going into the Abraham Accords very shortly,” Trump told reporters last week aboard Air Force One as he traveled to Florida.
However, Trump’s optimism contrasts with the realities of ongoing diplomacy. Saudi Arabia has publicly maintained that it will not join the accords without a credible pathway to a Palestinian state, a condition Israel continues to reject.
The development comes as the UN Security Council on Monday approved a US-drafted plan for Gaza authorizing an International Stabilization Force to provide security in the devastated territory and outlining a potential future path toward Palestinian statehood.
This is not the first time Trump has pushed advanced fighter jet sales in the region. In November 2020, his administration formally notified Congress of plans to sell 50 F-35 jets to the United Arab Emirates as part of a $23 billion arms package following the signing of the Abraham Accords.
Then-President Joe Biden later placed that sale on hold shortly after taking office.
