RSS
Trump Secures $600 Billion Saudi Investment Pledge on Gulf Tour
US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman shake hands during a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US President Donald Trump secured a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to invest in the United States after the oil power accorded him a gala welcome at the start of a tour of Gulf states.
Trump punched the air as he emerged from Air Force One to be greeted by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who later signed an agreement with the president in Riyadh on energy, defense, mining, and other areas.
The US agreed to sell Saudi Arabia an arms package worth nearly $142 billion, according to a White House fact sheet that called it “the largest defense cooperation agreement” Washington has ever done.
The agreement covers deals with more than a dozen US defense companies in areas including air and missile defense, air force and space advancement, maritime security and communications, the fact sheet said.
“Today we hope for investment opportunities worth $600 billion, including deals worth $300 billion that were signed during this forum,” the Saudi crown prince said in a speech during a US-Saudi Investment Forum session held in Riyadh on the occasion of Trump‘s visit.
“We will work in the coming months on the second phase to complete deals and raise it to $1 trillion,” he said.
Saudi Arabia is one of the largest customers for US arms.
Reuters reported in April the US was poised to offer the kingdom an arms package worth well over $100 billion.
“I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump said during a meeting with the crown prince, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler.
The US and Saudi Arabia had discussed Riyadh’s potential purchase of Lockheed F-35 jets, two sources briefed on discussions told Reuters, referring to a military aircraft that the kingdom is long thought to have been interested in.
It was not immediately clear whether those aircraft were covered in the deal announced on Tuesday.
Trump, who was accompanied by US business leaders including billionaire Elon Musk, will go on from Riyadh to Qatar on Wednesday and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.
He has not scheduled a stop in Israel, a decision that has raised questions about where the close ally stands in Washington’s priorities, and the focus of the trip is on investment rather than security matters in the Middle East.
“While energy remains a cornerstone of our relationship, the investments and business opportunities in the kingdom have expanded and multiplied many, many times over,” Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih told the investment forum.
“As a result … when Saudis and Americans join forces very good things happen, more often than not great things happen when those joint ventures happen,” he said before Trump‘s arrival.
Trump told the investment forum that relations with Saudi Arabia will be even stronger.
He was shown speaking with Riyadh’s sovereign wealth fund governor Yaser al-Rumayyan, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser, and Falih as he toured a hall that showed off models for the kingdom’s flashy, multi-billion-dollar development projects.
Trump called the Saudi crown prince a friend and said they have a good relationship, according to a pool report from the Wall Street Journal, adding that Saudi investment would help create jobs in the US.
BIG INVESTMENTS
Business leaders at the investment forum included Larry Fink, the CEO of asset management firm BlackRock; Stephen A. Schwartzman, CEO of asset manager Blackstone; and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Musk chatted briefly with both Trump and the crown prince, who is otherwise known as MbS, during a palace reception for the US president. And joining Trump for a lunch with MbS were top US businessmen including Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
MbS has focused on diversifying the Saudi economy in a major reform programme dubbed Vision 2030 that includes “Giga-projects” such as NEOM, a futuristic city the size of Belgium. Oil generated 62 percent of Saudi government revenue last year.
The kingdom has scaled back some of its ambitions as rising costs and falling oil prices weigh.
Saudi Arabia and the US have maintained strong ties for decades based on an ironclad arrangement in which the kingdom delivers oil and the superpower provides security in exchange.
Trump left Israel off his schedule although he wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a new ceasefire deal in the 19-month-old Gaza war.
Israel’s military operations against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and its assassinations of the two Iran-backed terrorist groups’ leaders, have at the same time given Trump more leverage by weakening Tehran and its regional allies.
US and Iranian negotiators met in Oman at the weekend to discuss a potential deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear program. Trump has threatened military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.
Trump told the investment forum he wants to offer Iran a new and better path toward a more helpful future. If no new nuclear deal is reached, he said, Tehran will face maximum pressure.
Trump‘s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said last week he expected progress imminently on expanding accords brokered by Trump in his 2017-21 first term under which Arab states including the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco recognized Israel.
Trump said it was his “fervent hope” that Saudi Arabia would soon sign its own normalization agreement with Israel, adding, “But you’ll do it in your own time.”
Still, Netanyahu’s opposition to a permanent stop to the war in Gaza or to the creation of a Palestinian state makes progress on similar talks with the Saudis unlikely, sources told Reuters.
The post Trump Secures $600 Billion Saudi Investment Pledge on Gulf Tour first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Readies for a Nationwide Strike on Sunday
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are calling on for a general strike to be held on Sunday in an effort to compel the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal with Hamas for the release of their loved ones and a ceasefire. According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, of whom 20 are believed to be alive.
The October 7 Council and other groups representing bereaved families of hostages and soldiers who fell since the start of the war declared they were “shutting down the country to save the soldiers and the hostages.”
While many businesses said they would join the strike, Israel’s largest labor federation, the Histadrut, has declined to participate.
Some of the country’s top educational institutions, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, declared their support for the strike.
“We, the members of the university’s leadership, deans, and department heads, hereby announce that on Sunday, each and every one of us will participate in a personal strike as a profound expression of solidarity with the hostage families,” the Hebrew University’s deal wrote to students.
The day will begin at 6:29 AM, to commemorate the start of the October 7 attack, with the first installation at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Further demonstrations are planned at dozens of traffic intersections.
RSS
Netanyahu ‘Has Become a Problem,’Says Danish PM as She Calls for Russia-Style Sanctions Against Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
i24 News – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a “problem,” his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen said Saturday, adding she would try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza war.
“Netanyahu is now a problem in himself,” Frederiksen told Danish media, adding that the Israeli government is going “too far” and lashing out at the “absolutely appalling and catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza and announced new homes in the West Bank.
“We are one of the countries that wants to increase pressure on Israel, but we have not yet obtained the support of EU members,” she said, specifying she referred to “political pressure, sanctions, whether against settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole.”
“We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect.”
The devastating war in Gaza began almost two years ago, with an incursion into Israel of thousands of Palestinian armed jihadists, who perpetrated the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
RSS
As Alaska Summit Ends With No Apparent Progress, Zelensky to Meet Trump on Monday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the press conference after the opening session of Crimea Platform conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, 23 August 2023. The Crimea Platform – is an international consultation and coordination format initiated by Ukraine. OLEG PETRASYUK/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – After US President Donald Trump hailed the “great progress” made during a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he was set to meet Trump on Monday at the White House.
“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway,” Trump told reporters during a joint press conference after the meeting.
Many observers noted, however, that the subsequent press conference was a relatively muted affair compared to the pomp and circumstance of the red carpet welcome, and the summit produced no tangible progress.
Trump and Putin spoke briefly, with neither taking questions, and offered general statements about an “understanding” and “progress.”
Putin, who spoke first, agreed with Trump’s long-repeated assertion that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine in 2022 had Trump been president instead of Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump said “many points were agreed to” and that “just a very few” issues were left to resolve, offering no specifics and making no reference to the ceasefire he’s been seeking.