US president says Israel has been very helpful to Saudi Arabia in fight against Houthis Abraham Accords is back on the table ‘may be more than ever’ US may need to strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain.
Washington – US President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that Saudi Arabia would likely accept assistance from Israel in its fight against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, adding that efforts to bring the kingdom into the Abraham Accords could be revived.
When asked whether Saudi Arabia should accept the assistance Israel was offering against the Houthis, Trump replied, “Yes, I think so.”
“I think they will do it. Absolutely,” Trump said when asked whether he had spoken with Saudi Arabia about the possibility. “Israel has been very helpful to Saudi Arabia, and yes, they would certainly do it,” he added. Trump also expressed confidence that the Abraham Accords could gain renewed momentum with Saudi Arabia.
“Perhaps more than ever,” Trump said when asked whether the accords were back on the table with the kingdom.“The Abraham Accords are one of our greatest achievements, and yes, I would say perhaps now more than ever,” he said.
“But Saudi Arabia is very happy to receive support from Israel and from us,” Trump added.
Saudi Arabia has not established diplomatic relations with Israel, and the kingdom’s potential participation in the Abraham Accords has remained a major goal of Trump’s Middle East policy.
Trump previously said that a US-Saudi civilian nuclear cooperation agreement was contingent on Saudi Arabia joining the accords and normalizing relations with Israel. The comments came as the Houthis intensified attacks against Saudi Arabia. The Houthis struck Saudi Arabia’s presidential palace complex on Thursday, killing five, and in a separate attack struck Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, killing 17 and injuring over 300.
In an interview Thursday, President Trump said the United States may need to strike Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified underground site believed to play a key role in Iran’s nuclear program. “We’re looking at Pickaxe Mountain,” the president told Newsmax. “We may have to go there. We’ll take a shot at that one. We’ll knock it out fast.” Trump also addressed reports that he was considering using the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB; popularly known as the “mother of all bombs”), refusing to rule out the weapon’s deployment against Iranian targets.
On Friday, Saudi military spokesman Major General Turki al-Maliki announced the interception of multiple missiles and drones targeting Saudi forces and infrastructure. This follows a deadly Houthi attack Thursday on the presidential palace in Aden, the Saudi-backed government’s de facto capital. Fighting also reportedly continued around Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, which is currently held by the government but encircled by Houthi forces.
Also on Friday, Iran’s army chief suggested that the Strait of Hormuz could reopen if U.S. forces withdrew. In a post on X, General Mohammad Akraminia wrote that “if America leaves the region, the Strait of Hormuz will reopen and collective security will be established with the participation of the region’s countries, and the global economy will improve.” He added that “if [the U.S.] doesn’t leave, we’ll expel it.”
In an interview on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked if the Saudis had asked for help, and said: “There are barely any Middle Eastern states that aren’t asking us for help.”
Jerusalem and Riyadh were considered close to inking a deal before the Hamas October 7 attack, though both sides have still expressed interest in pursuing such ties.
