Overview
- Parts of the Nov. 18 Oval Office meeting turned heated as President Trump pressed for Saudi entry into the Abraham Accords and MBS resisted an immediate move, U.S. officials told Axios.
- MBS said Saudi society is not ready to normalize now and reiterated that any normalization requires an “irreversible, credible and time‑bound” path to a Palestinian state.
- Trump publicly said Saudi Arabia would receive the same F‑35 model as Israel, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio subsequently assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the Saudis would get a downgraded variant.
- U.S. officials said Washington will safeguard Israel’s qualitative military edge, and the F‑35 configuration and terms remain under discussion.
- Israeli leaders’ opposition to a Palestinian state and regional public opinion after the Gaza war are key obstacles cited by Saudi officials to further progress.