The centerpiece of President Trump's friendly trip to Saudi Arabia was the signing of arms deals purportedly worth $110 billion now and up to $350 billion over 10 years. On Monday, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency reported that the State Department had signed off on a chunk of that deal, $1.4 billion worth of "possible" military sales to the Saudis — $662 million for radar systems, ammunition, trucks, and technical support, and $750 million for military training programs. The key word is "possible," argues Bruce Riedel, a veteran former CIA officer and current senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. For the most part, "there is no deal. It's fake news." Riedel explains:
I've spoken to contacts in the defense business and on the Hill, and all of them say the same thing: There is no $110 billion deal. Instead, there are a bunch of letters of interest or intent, but not contracts. Many are offers that the defense industry thinks the Saudis will be interested in someday. ... The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the arms sales wing of the Pentagon, calls them "intended sales." None of the deals identified so far are new, all began in the Obama administration. ... What the Saudis and the administration did is put together a notional package of the Saudi wish list of possible deals and portray that as a deal. Even then the numbers don't add up. It's fake news. [Riedel, Brookings Institution]
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