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.
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(Score: 5, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday May 18 2017, @11:37PM (5 children)
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.
Why would the Saudis be unhappy with the Obama regime? Every US Government has been quite willing to sell arms to the Saudis.
That line just looks like Trump White House spin to me, you know, "the last guy was terrible, look how great we are".
This link took about 2 seconds to find. [soylentnews.org]
I'm guessing Mr. Trump is going to take the credit for a bunch of deals Mr. Obama had already signed.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday May 18 2017, @11:42PM (2 children)
Maybe these two liberal sources can clear things up:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/20/barack-obama-saudi-arabia-visit-king-salman-relationship [theguardian.com]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-williams2/the-saudi-obama-snub-a-po_b_9755768.html [huffingtonpost.com]
No link, Sad!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Friday May 19 2017, @12:43AM (1 child)
Thanks for the links, you're better at it than me. The Huffington Post one is just the usual pointed blather posing as journalism from that site, but the Guardian one makes some proper points I suppose.
This is the link I meant to post. [reuters.com]
Billions in arms sales says to me that no matter what the personal relationships are like the US and Saudi are going to continue to do business, as they have for 70 years or so.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday May 20 2017, @10:22AM
Here's a more recent article you may be interested in:
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/334323-saudi-arabia-courts-trump [thehill.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 18 2017, @11:42PM (1 child)
> ...regional security architecture White House officials call an “Arab NATO,”
It's a long way from the North Atlantic to the Arabian peninsula. But maybe no one in the White House took geography?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @04:05AM
You would have preferred "CENTO", "SEATO", "ANZAC"?
Don't expect the airheads in the Trump White house to know about any of those, BTW.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]