Saudi Arabia in talks with US for defence pact, FT reports

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(Reuters) -Saudi Arabia is discussing a defence deal with the United States which it hopes to seal when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visits the White House next month, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

A senior Trump administration official told the Financial Times there were “discussions about signing something when the crown prince comes, but the details are in flux.”

The FT said the deal in discussion was similar to the recent U.S.-Qatar pact that pledged to treat any armed attack on Qatar as a threat to the United States. The U.S. deal with Qatar came after Israel last month attempted to kill leaders of Hamas with an air strike on Doha.

The U.S. State Department told the FT that defence co-operation with the kingdom was a “strong bedrock of our regional strategy,” but declined to comment on details of the potential deal.

The U.S. State Department, the White House and the Saudi government did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the FT report.

Saudi Arabia has long sought guarantees similar to the Qatar deal as part of Washington’s efforts to normalise relations between Riyadh and Israel. Last month, Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defence pact with nuclear-armed Pakistan. 

(Reporting by Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Stephen Coates)