With US appearing close to sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia, Israel trying to condition deal on normalization

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday indicated that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is still eager to purchase F-35 stealth fighter jets as part of a security deal between the two countries. 

On Thursday, the Defense Intelligence Agency had declined to comment about whether a decision had been made to sell the stealth fighter to Saudi Arabia, which has been in negotiations for a security pact with the U.S. since the administration of President Joe Biden. 

However, Trump said Saudi interest in the stealth fighter is still there. 

“They wanna buy a lot of jets,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One while traveling from Washington to Florida. “I'm looking at that. They've asked me to look at it. They want to buy a lot of '35' - but they want to buy actually more than that, fighter jets.” 

Interest on the potential sale of the fighter jets has peaked ahead of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s visit to the White House later this week. While President Trump is hoping to secure several investment deals as part of a security agreement, expectations are high for progress on normalization with Israel. 

The U.S. president also told reporters, “I hope that Saudi Arabia will be going into the Abraham Accords fairly shortly.”

Initial reaction in Israel to the potential sale of the stealth fighter jets was negative. According to Kan News, retiring Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer expressed to officials close to Trump his opposition to the sale during his last meeting in the U.S.

Israeli officials are concerned that the sale of the fighter jets to the Saudis would erode its qualitative military edge (QME), which is a longstanding U.S. security doctrine, intended to ensure the survival of the Jewish state in the region. Israel is currently the only country in the Middle East to field the F-35, which it put to effective use during the 12-day Israel-Iran war, and in operations against targets in Syria aimed at disrupting the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah, before and after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. 

However, Israeli government officials are reportedly considering asking the U.S. to condition the sale of the advanced fighters on a normalization deal with Israel. An Israeli official told Axios, “We told the Trump administration that the supply of F-35s to Saudi Arabia needs to be subject to Saudi normalization with Israel.” 

Israel had previously given cautious approval to the U.S. decision to sell the F-35 stealth fighter to the United Arab Emirates. Israel did not see the deal as a threat because of the terms of the Abraham Accords which the UAE had signed. The deal later fell through because of changes in the terms of the deal demanded by the Biden administration.

“Unlike the supply of F-35s to Turkey that we strongly oppose, we are less concerned about such weapons system in Saudi Arabia if its part of a regional security cooperation as part of the Abraham Accords, like we have with the United Arab Emirates,” another Israeli official told Axios. 

Will the US sell F-35 to Saudi Arabia?

A Pentagon review is warning that selling F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia could risk exposing U.S. military secrets to China.

Saudi Arabia’s deepening ties with China raise red flags in the Pentagon.

(Photos: US Air Force) pic.twitter.com/DgnMvZ5iq9

— Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) November 14, 2025

At the same time, both Israeli and U.S. officials are concerned that the sale of the advanced fighter jet to Saudi Arabia could lead to the transfer of critical information about the jet's technology to China. Saudi Arabia uses Chinese air defense missile systems, and integrating the F-35 into those systems could lead to the transfer of classified information to China, threatening the U.S.’s air superiority in a possible future conflict involving Chinese-manufactured systems. 

However, analysts also believe that such a sale could potentially strengthen U.S. influence in the region, through the use of American technology and the expansion of the Abraham Accords.