US and Saudi Arabia sign arms deals worth almost $110bn
May 20, 2017
US Secretary of State says the arms agreements will help Saudi Arabia deal with ‘malign Iranian influence’.
US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman signing the deal [Mandel Ngan/AFP]
The US and Saudi Arabia signed arms deals worth almost $110bn on Saturday, the first day of President Donald Trump’s visit to the traditional US ally.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the arms agreements will help Saudi Arabia deal with “malign Iranian influence”.
“The package of defence equipment and services supports the long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the entire Gulf region,” Tillerson told reporters in Riyadh on Saturday.
This is “in particular in the face of malign Iranian influence and Iranian-related threats which exist on Saudi Arabia’s borders on all sides,” Tillerson said.
Al Jazeera’s James Bays, reporting from Riyadh, said that the arms deal would be seen by both signatories as a “win-win”, especially as the deal involved arms that Obama was not prepared to sell to Saudi Arabia, including missile defence systems.
