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Israel is not opposed to the US sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia — but is insisting Washington condition it on whether Riyadh and Jerusalem make diplomatic progress.
“We told the Trump administration that the supply of F-35s to Saudi Arabia needs to be subject to Saudi normalization with Israel,” an unnamed Israeli official told Axios.
President Donald Trump and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman at their meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May. AFP via Getty ImagesUnlike the supply of F-35s to Turkey, which Israel strongly opposes, “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,” one of the officials told the outlet.
The report comes as President Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are scheduled to meet Tuesday at the White House and discuss a US-Saudi mutual defense agreement that could include a sale of the supersonic F-35s.
“It takes minutes for an F-35 to fly from Saudi Arabia to Israel,” one of the officials told Axios, adding that Jerusalem is insisting that Saudi jets not be allowed to station in the western part of the country.
Not conditioning the sale on normalized relations would be “counterproductive,” an official told the outlet.
The stealth F-35, which can reach a top speed of Mach 1.6, roughly 1,200 miles per hour, comes in several advanced variants — F-35A which is for conventional takeoffs and landings, F-35B which can land vertically, and F-35C which is designed to land on aircraft carriers. Each jet costs at least $101.5 million.
An F-35B Lightning II, one of the advanced variations of the fighter jet that Saudi Arabia has its eyes on purchasing. Getty ImagesIsrael is the only country in the Middle East with F-35s, with 45 in its arsenal and 30 more on order, the Times of Israel reported.
Trump told reporters Friday that Saudi Arabia wants “a lot” of fighter jets, with one estimate suggesting the kingdom could shell out billions for 48 planes.
In May, President Trump signed the largest defense sales agreement in history with Saudi Arabia, worth $142 billion dollars.
That agreement called for the US to provide Saudi with “state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from over a dozen US defense firms,” the White House said.
Trump said at the time it was his “fervent hope, wish, and even my dream that Saudi Arabia” would join the Abraham Accords, which have normalized relations between Israel and Muslim-majority nations in the region.
Saudi Arabia has said it wants Israel to agree to securing Palestinian statehood before signing on to the Abraham Accords.
A Pentagon intelligence report has previously raised concerns about selling the advanced fighters to Saudi Arabia — claiming the technology could be acquired by China through espionage or security partnership.
Bin Salman will be part of a US-Saudi Business Council meeting at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday where he will meet with dozens of CEOs from around the country.
The trip is the crown prince’s first to the United States since he approved the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
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