US secretary of state says president wants to halt benefits ‘as soon as possible,’ work underway on how to renegotiate memorandum of understanding set to expire in 2028.
.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that US President Donald Trump believes Israel is “rich enough” to buy American weapons without relying on military aid, and that the president wants that arrangement to come into effect in the near future.
Trump, said Rubio, “would like for the financing portion to end as soon as possible.”
“We’re working through that in terms of how we negotiate the memorandum of understanding,” he told reporters at the G7 meeting in Paris. “But the president’s expectation is that Israel is now prosperous and rich enough to be able to be a sales country. They can buy the weapons from us, but we no longer have to provide the financing.”
A 10-year memorandum of understanding on US military assistance to Israel, which gives the Jewish state $3.8 billion annually, expires at the end of September 2028.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this year that he wants to move Israel off US aid over the course of a decade. But Trump said last week that there is an agreement for the aid to cease by the end of the year, a statement that took many top officials on both sides by surprise. (Read More)
