Trump and Saudis OK billions of weapons sales and investment offers

Riad, Saudi Arabia – On the first day of his visit in the Middle East, President Trump combined the business with diplomacy, turned to the emerging government in Syria, extended an olive branch to Iran and approved what the White House was signed as the largest business pact that was signed by the USA and Saudi Arabia.

The business agreements include a defense agreement of $ 142 billion with Saudi Arabia, which offers the kingdom a number of modern weapons and offensive systems that Trump's predecessor, President Biden, kept in reserve in order to normalize the Saudi royal family to normalize relationships with the Israeli government.

Overall, according to the White House, Trump signed agreements with the Saudis about artificial intelligence, energy infrastructure, investments in healthcare and the production of aerospace, which have a value of around 600 billion US dollars. This number could not be checked immediately.

The financial offers agreed as the US Saudi investment summit found pragmatism in the Riyadh, the capital, the visiting of the president in a country that has proven to be ethically challenging US allies for decades.

The movements in Syria and Iran have been advocated by the Saudis and their Arab allies since Trump returned to office in January. With tradition, Trump showed the willingness to deal directly with players in the region who are viewed with deep suspicion in Washington, including the new President of Syria and the leadership in Iran.

“I never believed in having permanent enemies,” Trump said in extensive comments in an investment forum on Tuesday. “I'm different from many people.”

“Far too many American presidents were affected by the idea that it is our job to deal with the souls of foreign leaders and use the US policy to give justice for their sins,” he added. “It is God's task to sit in the court.”

In his speech, Trump addressed the continued program of the nuclear enrichment of the nuclear manner and again explained that Tehran “would never have a nuclear weapon”.

“I am not only here to condemn the past of chaos of the Iranian leaders, but to offer them a new path and a much better way to a much better and more hopeful future,” he said. “But if the leadership of Iran rejects this olive branch and continues to attack its neighbors, we will have no choice but to cause massive maximum pressure.”

Trump also said that he ended the gentle sanctions against Syria, which were imposed during the country's civil war, standing ovation from the gathered people who gathered to hear his speech, and fulfilled a long -repeated application by Syria leaders and his Arab and international allies. The long -time leader of Syria, Bashar Assad, was overthrown in December and the country is now being headed by an Islamist government.

Trump said he would order the attitude of the sanctions to give Syria “a chance of size”.

“The sanctions were brutal and crippled and served as an important function, but now they are to shine,” he said. “So I say good luck, Syria. Show us something very special that, frankly, in Saudi Arabia.”

He said in his decision by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

“Oh, what I do for the crown prince,” joked Trump.

Trump welcomes Saudi Pomp

Trump arrived in the Saudi capital on Tuesday for the first stage of his Middle East tour. He was welcomed with a pomp-and-draft ceremony and a powerful lunch with leading managing directors and government numbers before giving a speech in an investment forum.

After the Air Force One had landed on Riad's King Khalid International Airport, which was accompanied by the Saudi Arabic F-15S, Trump appeared, pumped his fist into the air and then stepped out of the plane onto a lavender carpet, where the Precrin crown greeted him with a jovial handshake with two hands.

Trump and the prince then went to a decorated hall in which they hired a traditional coffee greeting ceremony, the first phase of a two-day visit, which was equipped with similar exhibitions by Pageantry.

After Trump was finished, Trump drove in the limousine known as “The Beast”, flanked by a phalanx of riders that wore Saudi and American flags, and then stood in front of a guards and a military band that played “The Star Spangled Banner” and the Saudi National anthem.

A area of ​​US officials competed in Trump, including Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, special representative Steve Witkoff and dozens of business leaders. At an unusual moment during the meeting, Trump offered a greeting to a Saudi military officer – usually reserved for US service members.

Later, at a lavish lunch in the Al-Yamamah Palace, Trump and the Crown Prince began a one-hour happy session with Saudi Royals, officials and military commanders.

Also part of a 250-person guest list by Elite Business Figures and Star Chief Executive-Alle who focused on banking business, technology, health, defense and artificial intelligence, including Elon Musk, a top assistant of the President and the CEO of Openaai, Sam Altman. The owner and biotech entrepreneur of Los Angeles Times, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, also took part in lunch.

However, business agreements that were promised to be in hundreds of billions of dollars that were the focus of the day.

Trump used his usual pattern for the process and, with American weapons, observed weapons as “the best military equipment in the world”.

“As you know, we have the largest managing directors in the world here,” said Trump. “You will go away many checks about many things you offer.”

He added that his 24 hours in the country would offer an estimated 2 million employment opportunities in the United States.

After lunch, Trump and Mohammed signed a strategic economic partnership agreement, in which, according to the state Saudi Media Memorandum, the understanding of energy, mining, mineral resources, defense and cooperation agreement between NASA and the Saudi space agency.

Trump will stay in the kingdom until Wednesday when he will meet for the first time with the Syria-de-Facto President Ahmed al-Sharaa-a significant gesture of the American president towards an unknown leader and former al-Qaida member. Trump will travel to Qatar on Wednesday and end the trip in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.

The business summit before Trump's speech was a full day of roundtable discussions and debates on the stage, which are full of aphorisms and announcements that have arisen at such events.

CEOs of Saudi Arabia's so-called Giga projects, which jumped over the potential of the kingdom as a tourist destination. Jerry Inzerillo, who heads a massive tourism project near Diriyah, compared the future of the location to Beverly Hills and observed it as a walk-in mini-city with 6 million trees and six miles.

Nevertheless, the focus was on AI, with the leaders in Saudi Arabia's new AI company Humain, CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, who had joined the stage to discuss the country's plan, collect enough computer infrastructure to make it a main player in AI.

In the hours before Trump's speech gathered, who signed Memorandum of understanding with the Saudi government of Memorandum, for a group photo with government officials. Later Musk went onto the stage and returned to the now multi -year topic of autonomous taxis, which he would soon make her debut.

When the sun took away, Trump and the Crown Prince arrived in the Ritz-Carlton, where the summit was held. (The hotel was once used as a gold -plated prison for dozens of officials and business figures, which was committed shortly after Mohammed's father König Salman, in power, was committed to the government's anti -corruption drive.)

The Crown Prince led Trump to a gallery with pictures with earlier meetings between US President and Saudi monarchs, starting with the meeting of President Franklin D. Roosevelt with King Ibn Saud on board the US Navy Cruiser Us Quincy.

The managers then travel a room with scale models in which the future form of the country's giga projects was presented.

When they entered the hall, the Saudi's preference for ceremony was back in full power, whereby the topic “Air Force One” was tense when the leaders went to their positions near the stage, in the middle of a scandal that had a proposal about a proposal of Trump, accepting a historical gifts from Qatar: a bending radiation of $ 400 million, the air weapon as an Air weapon as an Air weapon would serve an Air weapon for the duration of its transmitter.

Bulos reported Riad and Wilner from Washington.