US Clears $24.3B F-35 Fighter Jet Sale to Saudi Arabia

The State Department approved a landmark $24.3 billion sale of 48 Lockheed F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia as the kingdom is drawn deeper into the Iran war.

The US State Department has approved the sale of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, according to The Independent's live coverage carried by Newswav. The proposed deal, valued at an estimated $24.3 billion, would include 48 of the military aircraft, 49 Pratt & Whitney engines, communications equipment, spare parts and other support items. The Saudi embassy in Washington welcomed the proposal on X, calling it a further step in defence cooperation between the two countries. The sale still needs approval from Congress before it can go forward.

Approving F-35s for Riyadh would mark a significant shift in US policy and could alter the military balance in the Middle East, according to The Independent's reporting. For decades, Washington has weighed Middle East weapons sales with a view to preserving Israel's 'qualitative military edge', ensuring Israel receives more advanced American arms than regional Arab states. A Saudi F-35 sale would test that definition directly. Saudi Arabia made a direct personal appeal for the jets to President Donald Trump in early 2025 and has long sought the stealth fighter, so the approval signals a deliberate change rather than a routine transaction.

The approval comes as Saudi Arabia is drawn deeper into the wider Middle East conflict. Iran-backed Houthis have escalated attacks on Saudi targets and launched a ground offensive toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital choke point connecting the Red Sea to global shipping, CNBC reports. A drone strike forced the shutdown of Saudi Arabia's strategic East-West crude pipeline, which carries oil from the kingdom's eastern coast to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. CNBC reports that Saudi Arabia has arranged additional shipments through Oman's Sohar port via ship-to-ship transfers, easing fears of a prolonged supply gap, while Reuters reporting cited by The Independent says China privately asked Iran to help rein in the Houthis after a Saudi appeal.

The jet approval sits within a burst of US-Saudi security and diplomatic activity. On the same day, The Independent's live blog reported that President Trump pushed a $2.8 billion weapons deal for Israel covering bombs previously halted over Gaza fears. Trump has told reporters the US is 'hopefully' toward the end of the nearly seven-month war with Iran and said he had spoken with Tehran directly, CNBC reports, while telling Axios he faces a 'big decision' on whether to resume large-scale attacks. CNBC also reports, citing Axios, that Trump plans to meet leaders of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly next Tuesday to discuss postwar strategy.

The regional escalation has left oil markets highly sensitive to any signal from Washington. CNBC reports Brent crude fell 1.5% to $104.28 a barrel after Saudi Arabia's workaround shipments through Oman, with US West Texas Intermediate dipping 1.1% to $101.30. JPMorgan's commodities team has formally abandoned its baseline oil forecast, with head of global commodities strategy Natasha Kaneva writing, according to Barchart via inkl, that the firm 'doesn't know how to model the endgame' after every economic pain threshold it assumed would force de-escalation was breached. Brent trades near $106 against the bank's estimated fair value of roughly $90, a gap it says implies the market is pricing in an additional 4 million barrels per day of potential supply losses.

The F-35 sale must still clear congressional review, where The Independent's live coverage noted that the top Democrat on the relevant committee opposes a separate sale of 2,000 bombs to Israel, suggesting arms transfers are becoming politically contested. Trump's Gulf leaders' meeting at the UN General Assembly is expected to focus on US proposals for a postwar strategy, which CNBC reports is not expected to be finalized until after the November midterms. Meanwhile, South Korea's foreign minister said no decision has been made on a possible military deployment to the Strait of Hormuz, and the UN fact-finding report on US strikes is set to go before the Human Rights Council in Geneva, keeping pressure on all sides as the conflict approaches its seventh month.