1:04President Donald Trump grasps the hand of Crown Prince and Premier Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia during a dialogue session within the Oval Office at the White House, November 18, 2025, Washington.Win McNamee/Getty Images
President Donald Trump declared with great excitement this week that he and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia had finalized a fresh Strategic Defense Accord, encompassing the sale of clandestine F-35 aircraft to the kingdom. However, scant specifics have been shared about the pact and its prospective repercussions for the Middle East.
During the Saudi prince’s sojourn to Washington, Trump revealed that Saudi Arabia would henceforth be regarded as a major non-NATO ally and that it had intentions to elevate its investments in the U.S. to a sum of one trillion dollars, a noteworthy increase from the $600 million publicized during Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia back in May.
A White House document provided minimal insight into the agreement, save for mentioning the sale of an unspecified quantity of F-35s. According to the document, the accord also covers the sale of 300 tanks made in the U.S. to Saudi Arabia, facilitates operations for American defense companies in Saudi Arabia, and bolsters collaboration in diverse spheres, such as civilian nuclear power, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors.
A Lockheed Martin F-35 II is on display at Al-Maktoum International Airport during the Dubai Airshow 2025 in Dubai, Nov. 20, 2025.Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images
Nevertheless, the dearth of concrete particulars pertaining to the agreement has prompted certain experts to ponder its genuine implications and how it will tackle the security connection with Israel.
“I believe we are still waiting to ascertain the true significance of all this,” Elizabeth Dent, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, remarked to ABC News. “The details we have gathered thus far are beneficial, yet insufficient.”
Dent expressed that supplementary data is required concerning the strategic defense agreement, especially considering the executive order issued in September about Qatar, which offered explicit security assurances to that nation. Back in 2022, the Biden administration also designated Qatar as a significant non-NATO ally, enabling it to reap advantages in defense commerce and security partnerships.
“The Senate will not give it the green light, so it appears to be an executive agreement that is somewhat more formal than Qatar’s executive order,” Dent stated.
President Donald Trump grasps the hand of Crown Prince and Premier Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia during a dialogue session within the Oval Office at the White House, November 18, 2025, Washington.Win McNamee/Getty Images
The executive order regarding Qatar proclaimed that “The United States will perceive any armed assault on the territory, sovereignty, or vital infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a menace to the peace and security of the United States.”
That setup “most likely caught the attention of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” as per Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East and an ABC News contributor.
Mulroy speculates that the Saudis “will probably seek something mirroring that executive order,” although that might entail the Trump administration mandating “for Saudi Arabia to normalize its connection with Israel” to facilitate that.
In his meeting with Trump at the Oval Office this week, the Saudi prince conditioned any progress toward becoming a part of the Abraham Accords and normalizing ties with Israel on a two-state solution for Palestinians, a concept that the administration does not endorse.
A worry that is being voiced about the F-35 sale is how the specific variant being sold to Saudi Arabia will stack up against the variant already sold to Israel. U.S. law mandates that any U.S. sales of advanced weapons to partners in the Middle East must ensure that Israel maintains a qualitative military edge, also known as QME.
“In my view, I consider that they both are at a standard where they deserve the best,” Trump commented regarding Saudi Arabia and Israel, both of whom have F-35s. “Israel is aware, and they will be very pleased.”
“The United States and Israel have had a longstanding comprehension that Israel preserves the qualitative edge when it comes to its defense,” Shosh Bedrosian, the spokeswoman for Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office stated at a briefing on Thursday when queried regarding the sale.
“That was true yesterday, that is true today, and the Prime Minister believes that will remain true tomorrow and in times to come,” she supplemented.
However, certain figures on Capitol Hill, like Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a seasoned critic of Saudi Arabia’s human rights history, has conveyed apprehension about whether the sale will maintain Israel’s QME and has said that the Trump administration needs to thoroughly elucidate “why this sale aligns with the vital national interest of the United States.”
Nevertheless, some analysts surmise that the F-35 sale signals the degree to which the Trump administration regards Saudi Arabia as a pivotal partner in the region.
It illustrates that Trump “is entirely committed to the U.S.-Saudi relationship,” Dan Shapiro, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East and U.S. ambassador to Israel, conveyed in a press release circulated by the Atlantic Council.
Shapiro believes that the arrangement with Saudi Arabia will likely satisfy the QME threshold on account of the precedent established in 2020 with the sale of F-35s in 2020, which cleared a QME evaluation, although the deal did not ultimately materialize.
“Israel will have been piloting the F-35 for a decade and a half before the inaugural Saudi aircraft is delivered, and Israel will possess close to seventy-five F-35s by then,” he appended.
In Mulroy’s opinion, the objective of the novel strategic agreement appears to be to keep Saudi Arabia within America’s scope of influence, but it should also not imply disregarding the nation’s human rights record.
“Human rights have always been an element of our foreign policy and should remain so, but our presence and participation are essential, and the association between the nations is pivotal to both countries’ security,” he articulated.
Sourse: abcnews.go.com
