Trump touts $142bn arms deal on Saudi visit
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The US and Saudi Arabia say they have signed commercial deals worth $142bn during Donald Trump's ongoing trip in the Middle East. Also on the programme, the head of the UN agency for Palestinians has told the BBC that Israel's blockade of food deliveries to Palestinians inside Gaza constitutes a war crime; and, a self-declared "king" of Germany and three of his senior "subjects" have been arrested and their group banned for attempting to overthrow the state.
(Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman exchange a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) during a ceremony at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service. I'm coming to you live from London. I'm |
| 0:08.2 | Paul Henley. President Trump and Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman have signed commercial |
| 0:15.7 | agreements worth more than $600 billion. The White House says that the deals, which include a defence package, |
| 0:22.7 | worth over 140 billion, are the biggest sales agreement of their kind in history. Other |
| 0:28.3 | elements include agreements on energy, mining and artificial intelligence technology. Speaking |
| 0:34.4 | at the event in the Saudi capital where he announced the deal, Mr. Trump hailed the importance of the relationship between Riyadh and Washington. |
| 0:42.7 | And he heaped praise upon his hosts. |
| 0:45.6 | I want to thank His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, for that incredible introduction. He's an incredible man. |
| 0:53.2 | Known him a long time now. There's nobody like him. |
| 0:56.9 | I've never forgotten the exceptional hospitality show to us by King Solomon, who's just, we talk about a great man. That is a great man. |
| 1:08.1 | That is a great man, a great family. |
| 1:14.3 | And he expressed his hopes for the future of the Middle East. Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts of tired |
| 1:21.1 | divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos, |
| 1:30.0 | where it exports technology, not terrorism, and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities |
| 1:35.9 | together, not bombing each other out of existence. We don't want that. |
| 1:43.6 | Donald Trump also announced that he would be lifting all U.S. sanctions on Syria. |
| 1:49.3 | He said the sanctions, most of which were imposed under President Assad, when he was in power, |
| 1:54.0 | had served their purpose. |
| 1:55.9 | The sanctions were brutal and crippling and served as an important, really an important function, nevertheless, |
| 2:03.4 | at the time. But now it's their time to shine. It's their time to shine. We're taking them all |
| 2:07.8 | off, and I think they're going to have, based on the people and the spirit and everything else |
| 2:12.4 | that I'm hearing about. So I say, good luck, Syria, show us something very special like they've done, frankly, in Saudi Arabia. |
... |
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