Trump signs £107bn defence deal with Saudis as tour of Gulf begins

The US and Saudi Arabia yesterday signed a $142bn (£107bn) arms deal touted by the White House as the "largest defence sales agreement in history".

- Andrew Roth Washington William Christou Beirut

The announcement came on the first stop of Donald Trump's four-day diplomatic tour of the Gulf states aimed at securing big deals and spotlighting the benefits of his transactional foreign policy.

The White House also confirmed the US president would meet Syria's Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose rebel forces helped depose Bashar al-Assad last year. It will be the first face-to-face meeting between a US president and a Syrian leader since 2000, when Bill Clinton met Hafez al-Assad in Geneva.

At an investment forum in Riyadh yesterday, Trump said he planned to lift sanctions on Syria after talks with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness," he said.

Al-Sharaa has apparently offered access to oil, reconstruction contracts and the building of a Trump tower in Damascus in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions on his country.

"This is amazing, it worked," said Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian writer and activist who is close to the Syrian president. He shared a picture of a mockup of a Trump tower in Damascus, adding: "This is how you win his heart and mind."

The Saudi visit was heavily focused on business interests and securing quick wins - often with characteristic Trumpian embellishment.