Mohammed bin Salman

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Key Figures

Secretary of State Marco Rubio invokes Section 36(c) of the Arms Export Control Act on May 3, 2026, certifying an emergency to approve an arms sale to Gulf states — including Saudi Arabia and the UAE — without the standard 30-day congressional notification period. Rubio cites Iran's regional military activity as the emergency justification, mirroring Pompeo's 2019 certification. The package's value and specific contents are not immediately disclosed to the public, though the administration notifies the full congressional intelligence committees in a classified briefing. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch receives notification; Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) objects that the emergency justification doesn't meet the statute's standard and calls for a committee vote on a resolution of disapproval. The certification extends a pattern in which executives use Section 36(c) to sell weapons to Gulf partners during periods of Iran tension, effectively converting an emergency exception into a routine policy tool.

Iranian drones struck the US Embassy compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on March 3, with two drones penetrating the diplomatic quarter and severely damaging three floors of a secure wing. The CIA station inside the compound was also hit. The State Department ordered non-emergency staff evacuations from US missions in Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, and Jordan and issued shelter-in-place alerts for Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dhahran. The attack marked the first direct Iranian strike on a US diplomatic facility since the 1979 Tehran hostage crisis.

The Washington Post and Axios reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman separately lobbied President Trump for weeks before the February 28 launch of Operation Epic Fury. Netanyahu met Trump twice and spoke by phone 15 times in two months; the decisive call came February 23 when Netanyahu shared intelligence that Iran's supreme leader would be at a single Tehran location. MBS reinforced the push, making Israel and Saudi Arabia an unusual joint lobbying force behind Trump's decision.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made his first US visit since the 2018 Khashoggi killing, receiving a military flyover and East Room gala attended by Elon Musk, Tim Cook, and Cristiano Ronaldo. When asked about Khashoggi, Trump said "things happen" and defended MBS. Saudi Arabia pledged to boost US investment from $600 billion to "almost $1 trillion." Trump angrily rebuked an ABC reporter for asking.

President Donald Trump signs a national security directive on January 20, 2025, his first day back in office, lifting Biden's pause on offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and resuming the full range of U.S. arms transfers to the kingdom. The directive reverses Biden's human rights conditions and reinstates Trump's first-term approach of treating Saudi Arabia as an unconditional security partner. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directs the Defense Security Cooperation Agency to process all pending Saudi arms notifications without a human rights review. The resumption includes precision-guided munitions and other offensive systems that Biden had withheld. Congress receives DSCA notifications within weeks; no committee acts to block the transfers.