Saudi Arabia Wants F-35s From U.S. And Israel Wants Normalization In Return

Illustrative image. (U.S. Air Force photo/Samuel King Jr.)

U.S. President Donald Trump revealed on November 14 that he is considering agreeing to a deal to supply Saudi Arabia with F-35 Lightning stealth strike fighters.

“They wanna buy a lot of jets,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I’m looking at that. They’ve asked me to look at it. They want to buy a lot of ‘35’ – but they want to buy actually more than that, fighter jets.”

Trump plans to host Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House next week. The two are expected to sign major economic and defense agreements.

Asked about the talks, Trump told reporters it was “more than meeting, we’re honoring” Saudi Arabia, adding that he hoped Saudi would soon join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel.

The very next day, November 15, Axios reported that Israel does not object to the sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia but insists that any transfer of such advanced fighter jets be conditioned on the normalization of relations.

The report, by journalist Barak Ravid, cites two Israeli sources involved in the matter who state that Israel views Saudi Arabia obtaining the jets differently than it does with countries such as Turkey.

“We told the Trump administration that the supply of F-35s to Saudi Arabia needs to be subject to Saudi normalization with Israel,” Axios quotes an Israeli official stating, insisting that not conditioning the sale on diplomatic progress between the two nations would be “counterproductive.”

“Unlike the supply of F-35s to Turkey that we strongly oppose, we are less concerned about such a weapons system in Saudi Arabia if it’s part of a regional security cooperation as part of the Abraham Accords, like we have with the United Arab Emirates,” Axios quotes a second official as saying.

Today, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that operates F-35s, with at least 45 of the fighter jet in service with its air force and another 30 on order.

“It takes minutes for an F-35 to fly from Saudi Arabia to Israel,” one of the officials tells Axios, insisting that Israel requires that any Saudi F-35s not be stationed in the west of the country.

Since its introduction into service in 2016, the F-35 has faced criticism over a wide array of problems, from buggy software, to sensor fusion, unreliable engines prone to overheating, design issues that limit speed and agility in addition to maintenance difficulties.

Despite all of these issues, the purchase of the fighter jet would give Saudi Arabia a certain military edge, specifically against Iran and Turkey.

Click to see the full-size image.

It is important to note here, however, that the United Arab Emirates, a close ally of the kingdom, was also promised an F-35 deal in exchange for signing the Abrahamic Accords in 2020. However, the deal quickly fell apart after the signing, and Israel later denied that it was a part of the accords. Saudi Arabia will likely be more cautious.

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