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Ahead of the US president's visit to Saudi Arabia, a series of multi-billion-dollar arms deals have been outlined. The previous US administration suspended some supplies because of human rights concerns.
When President Trump arrives in Riyadh this week, he will lay out his vision for a new regional security architecture White House officials call an “Arab NATO,” to guide the fight against terrorism and push back against Iran. As a cornerstone of the plan, Trump will also announce one of the largest arms-sales deals in history.
Behind the scenes, the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia have been conducting extensive negotiations, led by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The discussions began shortly after the presidential election, when Mohammed, known in Washington as “MBS,” sent a delegation to meet with Kushner and other Trump officials at Trump Tower.
After years of disillusionment with the Obama administration, the Saudi leadership was eager to do business. “They were willing to make a bet on Trump and on America,” a senior White House official said.
[...] The most concrete part of the idea is a mammoth U.S. arms package for Saudi Arabia that Trump will also announce in Riyadh. Final details are still being worked out, but officials said the package will include between $98 billion and $128 billion in arms sales. Over 10 years, total sales could reach $350 billion.
The sales include huge upgrades for the Saudi army and navy to include Littoral Combat Ships, THAAD missile defense systems, armored personnel carriers, missiles, bombs and munitions, officials said. Some of the production and assembly could be located in Saudi Arabia, boosting MBS’s project to build a Saudi domestic defense industrial capability. But most of the items would be built by American defense contractors.
Additional coverage:
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- The American Conservative (opinion)
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- London Times (pay walled)
- The Australian (News Corp)
- Independent Online (opinion)
- Newsweek
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- politico.eu
- Washington Times
- Jordan Times
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- Reuters
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(Score: 3, Touché) by Gaaark on Thursday May 18 2017, @11:07PM (5 children)
Let's sell weapons, and then when those weapons are used to kill Americans we'll get all "Hey, they're killing Americans!! Let's kill them!!".
Yuuup... That's why we're so smart, cause..........
.........yeah......
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday May 19 2017, @02:27AM
Hey... 350 billion dollars.... Let's not sweat the small shit...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Funny) by mhajicek on Friday May 19 2017, @04:17AM
And tiny hands.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @05:15AM
Don't be ridiculous. The Saudi will give the weapons to some fringe group who in turn will do the American killing. Who do you think is bankrolling ISIS?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @06:20AM
We like countries addicted to our weapons. We especially like them addicted to our spare parts. Iran had the F-14, which would be a nice plane when not grounded due to lack of spare parts. We also like to keep our defense contractors viable.
The alternative is that Russia and China and others gain these advantages. They thus gain influence. They might not cut off the supply of parts when hostility rises. Because the buyers know this, they might be more prone to being hostile. Arms manufacturers outside the USA gain mass production advantages, reducing costs, while costs for the USA go up.
So yeah... sucks, but the alternative may be worse.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday May 19 2017, @05:57PM
Remember when selling weapons to the Saudis was bad?
Oh wait, it was only selling weapons to the Saudis while democrat that was bad. My mistake.