The US is poised to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth more than US$100 billion, six sources with direct knowledge of the issue said, adding that the proposal was being lined up for announcement during US President Donald Trump’s visit to the kingdom next month.
The offered package comes after the administration of former US president Joe Biden unsuccessfully tried to finalize a defense pact with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisioned Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel.
The Biden proposal offered access to more advanced US weaponry in return for halting Chinese arms purchases and restricting Beijing’s investment in the country. It has not been established if the Trump administration’s proposal includes similar requirements.
Photo: AFP
The White House and Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A US Department of Defense official said: “Our defense relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is stronger than ever under President Trump’s leadership. Maintaining our security cooperation remains an important component of this partnership, and we will continue to work with Saudi Arabia to address their defense needs.”
Lockheed Martin Corp could supply a range of advanced weapons systems, including C-130 transport aircraft, two of the sources said.
One source said Lockheed would also supply missiles and radars.
RTX Corp, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, is also expected to play a significant role in the package, which would include supplies from other major US defense contractors such as Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp and General Atomics, four of the sources said.
Several executives from defense companies are considering traveling to the region as a part of the delegation, three of the sources said.
All the sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
A potential deal for Lockheed’s F-35 jets, which the kingdom has been reportedly interested in for years, is expected to be discussed, three of the sources said, while downplaying the chances for an F-35 deal being signed during the trip.
The US guarantees that its close ally Israel receives more advanced American weapons than Arab states, giving it what is labeled a “qualitative military edge” over its neighbors.
Israel has owned F-35s for nine years, building multiple squadrons.
Under US law, major international weapons deals must be reviewed by the US Congress before they are finalized.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
CYBERCRIME, TRAFFICKING: A ‘pattern of state failures’ allowed the billion-dollar industry to flourish, including failures to investigate human rights abuses, it said Human rights group Amnesty International yesterday accused Cambodia’s government of “deliberately ignoring” abuses by cybercrime gangs that have trafficked people from across the world, including children, into slavery at brutal scam compounds. The London-based group said in a report that it had identified 53 scam centers and dozens more suspected sites across the country, including in the Southeast Asian nation’s capital, Phnom Penh. The prison-like compounds were ringed by high fences with razor wire, guarded by armed men and staffed by trafficking victims forced to defraud people across the globe, with those inside subjected to punishments including shocks from electric batons, confinement
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
RSS