The White House is reportedly trying to seek a "balanced" deal with Israel to proceed with its sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia while ensuring IDF superiority in the region, N12 News reported on Wednesday evening.
A senior White House official told N12 that the Trump Administration would be holding talks with Israel to ensure that the sale to the Gulf State can go through while still upholding its agreements with Jerusalem.
“The Trump administration is committed to the law that stipulates the United States will maintain the IDF’s qualitative edge in the Middle East. We will not breach it," the official said.
Notably, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has F-35 fighter jets. N12 reported that supplying Saudi Arabia with the jets would affect Israel's military superiority in the region.
Ensuring Israel's military qualitative advantage is part of a long-standing agreement between Washington and Jerusalem to ensure Israel's security, and was codified into US law in 2008.
The deal would take years to enact, giving Israel time to negotiate with the US over its terms.
As it stands, the deal contradicts Israel's demand to link the sale of F-35s to normalization with Saudi Arabia.
If the deal moves forward without this condition, Israel could lose a key source of pressure on Saudi Arabia to normalize relations.
Saudi crown prince visits US, signs sweeping defense agreement
The report comes after the US agreed on Tuesday to sell Saudi Arabia F-35s as part of a sweeping series of defense agreements signed by President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump stated that Saudi Arabia also pledged to buy 300 US tanks and invest $1 trillion in American assets.
Later, at an official state dinner, Trump upgraded Saudi Arabia to a major non-NATO ally.
"We're taking our military cooperation to even greater heights by formally designating Saudi Arabia as a major, non-NATO ally, which is something that is very important to them," Trump said at a dinner with the Saudi Crown Prince.
The total value of deals between Saudi Arabia and the US has reached $557 billion, Saudi state TV reported on Wednesday, citing Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih.