Israel is pressuring the Trump administration to condition the sale of advanced American fighter jets to Saudi Arabia on Riyadh normalizing ties with Tel Aviv.
“We told the Trump administration that the supply of F-35s to Saudi Arabia needs to be subject to Saudi normalization with Israel,” one Israeli official told Axios. The official added that President Donald Trump’s approval of the sale without Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords would be a “mistake and counterproductive.”
“Unlike the supply of F-35s to Turkey that we strongly oppose, we are less concerned about such weapons system in Saudi Arabia if its part of a regional security cooperation as part of the Abraham Accords, like we have with the United Arab Emirates,” a second Israeli official said.
In 2020, Trump made deals with the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco that led to the Muslim nations normalizing their ties with Israel, dubbed the Abraham Accords. To push the agreements through, Trump agreed to recognize Morocco’s claim to the Western Sahara, removing Sudan from the terrorism blacklist, and agreed to sell additional weapons to the Gulf Arab states.
Earlier this month, Kazakhstan joined the Accords. However, Astana already had diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv. Trump is pushing for Syria to be the next country to normalize relations with Israel. In an effort to push Damascus to sign on to the Accords, Trump invited al-Qaeda commander turned Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, or Abu Mohammad al-Julani, to the White House.
Getting Riyadh to enter into the Abraham Accords would be a significant victory for Tel Aviv. Israel has worked for decades to strip away Palestine’s support in the Islamic world. The Arab League has a long-standing position that its members should not normalize ties with Tel Aviv until Israel allows the establishment of an independent state.
At this time, the main issue preventing Saudi Arabia from joining the accords is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to commit to an independent Palestinian state.
If the US moves forward with the sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia, Israel is likely to demand additional weapons and military support from the US. Washington maintains a policy of ensuring Tel Aviv has a qualitative military edge (QME) over other countries in the region.
