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Trump signs Kushner-negotiated $100B Saudi arms deal
| CNN | - |
Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia (CNN) President Donald Trump signed a nearly $110 billion
defense deal with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on
Saturday, signaling the United States' renewed commitment to its
alliance with the Gulf kingdom and ...
Trump signs Kushner-negotiated $100B Saudi arms deal
Story highlights
- Kushner hoped to maneuver a discount with Lockheed
- Ultimately, the two sides were able to reach an agreement
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (CNN)President
Donald Trump signed a nearly $110 billion defense deal with Saudi
Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Saturday, signaling the
United States' renewed commitment to its alliance with the Gulf kingdom
and desire to bolster its counterterrorism partnership.
The
deal was finalized in part thanks to the direct involvement of Jared
Kushner, the President's son-in-law and senior adviser. He shocked a
high-level Saudi delegation earlier this month when he personally called
Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson and asked if she would cut the
price of a sophisticated missile detection system, according to a source
with knowledge of the call.
Pressured
to finalize a massive $100-plus billion arms deal in the two weeks
leading up to Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia, Kushner hoped to maneuver a
discount on Lockheed's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)
system during the Saudis' visit to the White House on May 1 -- a request
that Hewson said she would look into at the time.
The New York Times first reported the exchange between Kushner and Hewson.
On
Saturday, near the end of Trump's first day in the kingdom, the two
leaders inked a deal greenlighting a $109 billion defense deal, which
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said was a component of $350 billion in
economic and defense investments between the two countries over the
next 10 years.
Lockheed's Hewson was on hand Saturday in the cavernous Riyadh ballroom where Trump and Salman made the deal official.
The
company was "proud to be part of this historic announcement that will
strengthen the relationship between" the US and Saudi Arabia," Hewson
said. The sales authorized under the deal would bolster Saudi Arabia's
security, provide an economic boon to both countries and "strengthen the
cause of peace in the region," she added.
The
deal was a welcome sign for Saudi Arabia, which had grown nervous about
the strength of its alliance with the US as President Barack Obama
signed the nuclear deal with Iran and signaled a potential rapprochement
with the Persian nation, which is fiercely at odds with Saudi Arabia.
Trump, by contrast, has castigated Iran as a destabilizing power and
criticized the nuclear deal, instead seeking to bolster partnerships
with Sunni Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia -- which Trump demonstrated
by making his first foreign trip as president here.
In
a statement, a White House official called the defense deal "a
significant expansion of the over seven-decade long security
relationship between" the US and Saudi Arabia.
"This
package of defense equipment and services support the long-term
security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in the face of Iranian
threats while also bolstering the Kingdom's ability to contribute to
counterterrorism operations across the region, reducing the burden on
the US military to conduct those operations," the White House official
said.
Ultimately, the two sides
were able to reach an agreement on a weapons package that amounts to
nearly $110 billion in tanks, fighter jets, combat ships and the THAAD
missile defense system, according to the White House.
It
is unclear how much the Saudis will be paying for THAAD, but Trump
called it a "billion-dollar system" last month when the US deployed the
advanced missile defense radar to South Korea.
While
calling the head of a major defense company and simply asking for a
lower price is widely considered an unorthodox negotiation tactic,
Kushner's hands-on approach has drawn comparisons to when
then-President-elect Trump criticized the stealthy F-35 fighter jet for being too expensive, and Hewson gave her "personal commitment" to cut the cost of the program in February.
And
the details of how the call took place also provide a window into
Kushner's role during negotiations with the Saudis and the range of his
influence on matters of foreign policy as a whole.
During
last year's presidential campaign and later during the transition,
Kushner was identified by Trump's team as the principal point of contact
for foreign governments looking to either congratulate the new US
leader or begin diplomatic talks.
The
36-year-old commercial real estate magnate started building a
relationship with members of the Saudi royal family shortly after the
election, a source told CNN, and was on hand when Trump hosted the
deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in March.
Issues
of foreign diplomacy evolved into an interagency effort once the
administration began, according to a source, and Kushner's role in
negotiating the arms deal was just one part of an larger effort that
included the State Department, Department of Defense and National
Security Council.
But the scope of Kushner's influence on matters of foreign policy have remained in the spotlight through the early months of Trump's presidency.
CNN
reported last month that multiple White House and administration
officials said Kushner had eclipsed nearly all of Trump's West Wing and
Cabinet advisers in terms of influence and established himself as the
key envoy for those outside the administration.
White
House press secretary Sean Spicer said at the time that Kushner was
working jointly with the State Department to manage the administration's
foreign affairs.
"He's
continuing to work with them and facilitate an outcome. But he brings a
perspective to this, and began doing that during the transition. But
again, it's not a binary choice where he's doing this at the expense of
somebody else."
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