US approves $3.5bn missile sale to Saudi Arabia ahead of Trump visit

US President Donald Trump is due to meet the heads of state of six Gulf countries while on a visit to Riyadh later this month, a source close to the Saudi government told AFP on Sunday.

Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from May 13 to 16 will be the first foreign trip of his second term — other than a brief visit to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis.

“Trump will meet the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh”, the source said, referring to an alliance comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman.

The goal of the meeting is to reinforce “political and economic cooperation”, the source said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Ahead of the visit, the United States on Friday approved a $3.5 billion sale of missiles to Saudi Arabia.

Trump has boasted of securing major commercial deals from oil-rich Saudi Arabia, which has also been a key go-between for US diplomacy on Russia and Ukraine.

The visit to Riyadh comes after the United States and Iran, located across the Gulf from the GCC countries, had begun indirect negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

Trump has warned Iran that he would enforce sanctions while calling for the global boycott of “any amount” of Iranian oil or petrochemicals, after a round of talks scheduled for this weekend was delayed.

The US president, who ripped up an earlier nuclear deal in 2018, has voiced hope at securing a fresh agreement to resolve concerns and stave off the possibility of an Israeli military strike on Iran.

Another policy objective that may be on the horizon for Trump is a long-sought-after deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, similar to the Abraham Accords he sealed during his first mandate.

Saudi Arabia has, however, insisted it would not consider any such normalisation deal without an end to the war in Gaza.

AFP