Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived at the White House on Tuesday for meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump, where the two leaders signed a broad set of bilateral agreements.
Bin Salman said Tuesday that Riyadh would strive to ensure a deal between Iran and the U.S.
"We will do our best to help to reach a deal between the rest of America and Iran," bin Salman, also known as MBS, told reporters at the White House alongside Trump.
MBS said Saudi Arabia believes it is good for Iran's future to have a "good deal" that would satisfy the region and the world.
"So, we will do our best to see that they happen," he added.
Trump said Iran wants to "very badly" make a deal.
"I am totally open to it, and we're talking to them, and we start a process. But it would be a nice thing to have a deal with Iran. And we could have done it before the war, but that didn't work out...but they would very much like, I mean, they may say something else, but they would very much like to have a deal," he added.
Meanwhile, Trump also said Saudi Arabia would purchase "top of the line" F-35 stealth fighter jets, apparently bucking Israeli concerns that the sale could erode Tel Aviv's regional military edge.
Trump said the jets he plans to sell to Riyadh will be "pretty similar" to the models sold to Israel, saying both nations are "great" U.S. allies.
"I know they'd like you to get planes of reduced caliber. I don't think that makes you too happy," Trump told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he hosted Saudi Arabia's de facto leader at the White House.
"They've been a great ally. Israel's been a great ally, and we're looking at that exactly right now. But as far as I'm concerned, I think they are both at a level where they should get top of the line," he added.
The Zionist Organization of America on Monday sharply criticized Trump's plan to sell the fifth-generation stealth jets to Riyadh, saying it "would substantially impair Israel's qualitative military edge and would put extremely sensitive American technology within reach of regimes that are hostile to US interests."
The group cited a section of U.S. law known as 22 US Code § 2776(h), which obligates Washington to maintain Israel's ability to confront regional threats with minimal losses.
According to ZOA, approving Saudi Arabia's request for 48 F-35s, reportedly exceeding Israel's current fleet, would directly contradict this requirement.
Successive U.S. administrations have considered selling advanced weapons to Gulf states, but Washington has traditionally restricted such transfers to ensure Israel retains a decisive military advantage.
Trump hailed Syria's "tremendous progress" in the last 11 months under President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
"As you know, the leader of Syria was just here. We had a great meeting, and he's strong guy, and I guess you need a strong person to run it. And I think Syria has made tremendous progress," Trump said.
"We did lift the sanctions at the request of the crown prince. Also, the president of Turkey, (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan, called me specifically. He said, 'You know, if you don't lift the sanctions, Syria doesn't have a chance. If you do, they have a very good chance.' And between the two of them and some others, I lifted the sanctions, and the results so far been pretty good," Trump added.
Since former President Bashar Assad's ouster last year, Syria has been seeking to expand cooperation with regional and international partners, including the US, in various fields and lift economic and political sanctions amid efforts to rebuild the war-torn nation after more than a decade of civil war.
A series of U.S. sanctions have already been lifted, including the delisting of senior Syrian officials from U.N. and U.S. terror-related sanctions.
The lifting of remaining sanctions, particularly the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, appears to have won support from pivotal lawmakers, including the Republican and Democratic heads of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
While the administration can waive them for 180-day periods, as Trump did last week ahead of al-Sharaa's visit, their full removal requires action from Congress.
Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de factor ruler, was feted by a welcome ceremony befitting a king as jets flew in V formation over the White House, cannons fired and the U.S. Marine Corps band played. Trump greeted bin Salman at the South Portico before the leaders entered the executive mansion.
The visit is bin Salman's first in over seven years.
The U.S.-Saudi relationship had been sent into a tailspin by the ruthless killing of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul, that U.S. intelligence agencies later determined Prince Mohammed likely directed the agents to carry out.
But seven years later, the dark clouds over the relationship have been cleared away. And Trump has tightened his embrace of the 40-year-old crown prince he views as an indispensable player in shaping the Middle East in the decades to come. Prince Mohammed, for his part, denies involvement in the killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen and Virginia resident.
Khashoggi will likely be an afterthought as the two leaders unveil billions of dollars in deals and huddle with aides to discuss the tricky path ahead in a volatile Middle East. They'll end their day with an evening White House soiree, organized by first lady Melania Trump, to honor the prince.
"They have been a great ally," Trump said of the Saudis on the eve of the visit.
Trump's family has a strong personal interest in the kingdom. In September, London real estate developer Dar Global announced that it plans to launch Trump Plaza in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
It's Dar Global's second collaboration with the Trump Organization, the collection of companies controlled by the U.S. president's children, in Saudi Arabia. Last year, the two companies announced the launch of Trump Tower Jeddah.
