Saudi Arabia is discussing a defence deal with the United States which it hopes to seal when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visits the White House next month, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Reuters/Louiza Vradi
Saudi Arabia is discussing a defence deal with the United States which it hopes to seal when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visits the White House next month, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
A senior Trump administration official told the Financial Times there were "discussions about signing something when the crown prince comes, but the details are in flux.”
The FT said the deal in discussion was similar to the recent U.S.-Qatar pact that pledged to treat any armed attack on Qatar as a threat to the United States. The U.S. deal with Qatar came after Israel last month attempted to kill leaders of Hamas with an air strike on Doha.
The U.S. State Department told the FT that defence co-operation with the kingdom was a "strong bedrock of our regional strategy," but declined to comment on details of the potential deal.
The U.S. State Department, the White House and the Saudi government did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the FT report.
Saudi Arabia has long sought guarantees similar to the Qatar deal as part of Washington's efforts to normalise relations between Riyadh and Israel. Last month, Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defence pact with nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Reporting by Ananya Palyekar
Saudi oil giant Aramco announced Tuesday a 44% surge in net profit for the second quarter compared to the same period last year, driven by soaring crude prices amid the war in the Middle East.
Iran said on Monday there were no talks under way with the United States and no plans for any meetings, contradicting U.S. President Donald Trump, who had cited talks he said would take place that afternoon as justification for calling off attacks.
The British band Massive Attack said its members were detained by Singapore police and "isolated and separately questioned" after the two performers raised a Palestinian flag at their concert in the city-state last Wednesday.
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.