...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...with F-35 stealth fighter jets but insists that any transfer of such advanced aircraft be conditioned on the normalization of relations between Riyadh and Jerusalem, Channel 12 and Axios report.
The report, by journalist Barak Ravid, cites two Israeli sources involved in the matter who state that Jerusalem views Saudi Arabia obtaining the jets differently than it does with countries such as
...a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
member, but not the most reliable...
, which has sought them to make up ground on regional rivals such as Israel.
"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.
Israel has expressed concern in the past over the potential sale of the advanced F-35 fighter jets to nearby countries, as it is anxious to preserve its qualitative military edge in the region. Today, Israel is the only country in the Middle East with F-35s in its arsenal, currently operating 45 of the aircraft with another 30 units 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.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...
said that he was considering agreeing to a deal to supply Saudi Arabia with the jets, several days ahead of a planned trip by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists...
. They are expected to sign economic and defense agreements.
Trump repeated that he hopes Saudi Arabia will soon join the Abraham Accords, which have normalized relations between Israel and Moslem-majority nations. Riyadh has resisted such a step absence of an agreement on a roadmap to Paleostinian statehood.