Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia agreed with American defense companies to purchase precision guided munitions at a value of SAR 26.25 billion ($7 billion), Reuters reported, citing informed sources as saying.

The U.S. defense firms are Raytheon Co and Boeing Co, the agency added.

The new contract is a part of a $110 billion weapons deal signed by the U.S. president Donald Trump during his Saudi Arabia visit last May.

“Both companies declined comment on the weapons sale,” Reuters noted.

“We do not comment to confirm or deny sales until they are formally notified to Congress,” said a State Department official.

“The U.S. government will take into account factors, including regional balance and human rights as well as the impact on the U.S. defense industrial base,” the official in the US State Department added.

An official in the U.S. government stated that the agreement between the two nations will cover a 10-year period, and actual transfers of weapons for Saudi Arabia may take a lot of years.

“The Saudis are one errant strike away from moving five or six senators over to the other side,” a senior military fellow at the Near East South Asia Center for Security Studies in Washington, David Des Roches said.