United States President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he plans to sell F-35 fifth-generation fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. “They want to buy. They are a great ally. We will be doing that,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.

The F-35 Lightning ii is a supersonic, stealth, multi-role weapons platform with advanced sensors, networking and other avionics that has achieved a 20:1 kill ratio in some U.S. Air Force exercises against fourth-generation fighters.

Countries that acquire F-35s gain not only an edge over rival militaries but also access to strategic American technology. Sharing the F-35 with Saudi Arabia implies President Trump doesn’t see the Saudis as a potential enemy.

Losing the advantage: The only other Middle Eastern nation with F-35s is Israel, and the Israelis had opposed sales of the fighter to other militaries in the region. They now appear supportive, but one Israeli official told Axios that this support is conditioned on Saudi Arabia normalizing its relationship with Israel.

Royal guest: Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, visits the White House today, the first time he has visited the United States since 2018. According to the New York Times, Trump and Mohammed “are prepared to sign deals related to bolstering Saudi Arabia’s artificial intelligence industry by investing in American technology” and will discuss a potential Saudi nuclear deal.

Deadly flaw: When President Trump brokered a peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates in his first term, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry called the president’s trust in the Gulf Arabs a “deadly flaw.” This is because of a prophecy in Psalm 83 that specifies the “Ishmaelites” (Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states) will work with enemies of the U.S. and Israel so “that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.” (Request your free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong, for more information.)

To learn more about the peril of such negotiations and alliances, read “Deadly Flaw in Mideast Peace Deals.”