Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As Donald Trump prepares for his overseas excursion, he comes bearing big gifts, including a huge arms package for the Saudis that will spread war across the middle east for decades.
America is close to completing a major arms deals with Saudi Arabia totalling more than $100 billion dollars, a senior White House official said on Friday, a week ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned visit to the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The arms package could end up surpassing more than $300 billion over a decade to help Saudi Arabia boost its defensive capabilities in the face of challenges from Iran in the Gulf region on an escalated basis.
The arms package is being developed to coincide with Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia. The President leaves for the kingdom on May 19, the first stop on his maiden international trip.
America has been the main supplier for most Saudi military needs, from F-15 fighter jets to missile systems worth tens of billions of dollars in recent years. Trump has vowed to stimulate the US economy by boosting manufacturing jobs, but during election 2016 he had said it would not be a recovery rooted in spreading death globally.
While in Riyadh, the official said Trump would attend a number of events including a series of meeting with Saudi officials, a separate session with leaders of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and a dinner with Arab and Muslim leaders, 38 of whom have been invited, to discuss combating extremism and cracking down on illicit financing of terrorists in the Arab world.