Donald Trump updates: US president ends Middle East tour with more deals

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To know more about the UAE’s plan to invest $1.4 trillion in the US over the next 10 years, watch our report here.

And read here how a group of US senators is trying to halt $3.5bn in weapons sales to the UAE and Qatar over concerns that the deals will personally benefit Trump’s family.

We will be closing this live page shortly. Here’s a quick recap of the day’s major developments:

• President Trump wrapped up his Middle East tour after visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
• Trump has said the US has “great friendships” with the wealthy Gulf nations.
• The tour brought lucrative deals for the US and the three countries, including an investment worth $1.4 trillion from the UAE into the US’s AI sector over the next decade and an agreement for Qatar to buy $42bn worth of US military hardware.
• The UAE and the US also plan to spend $440bn in the energy sector through to 2035.
• Etihad Airways said it is buying 28 Boeing aircraft.

The US president says Iran has his administration’s proposal and knows it needs to move quickly, a day after saying Washington and Tehran were close to a nuclear deal.

“They have a proposal. More importantly, they know they have to move quickly or something bad is going to happen,” Trump issued the threat on board Air Force One after departing the UAE.

Saudi Arabia: In the multiple agreements, Trump got a $600bn deal from Saudi Arabia to invest in the US, according to the White House. Military and medical research are among the areas covered.

Qatar: Boeing landed its biggest deal for widebody aeroplanes when state carrier Qatar Airways placed firm orders for 160 jetliners plus options to buy 50 more, during Trump’s visit to the Gulf Arab country. The deal was worth $96bn, according to the White House.

United Arab Emirates: The US has announced a new weapons sale of more than $1.4bn to the UAE in 10-year commitment. The US and UAE also announced a partnership to build a huge data centre complex in Abu Dhabi to advance artificial intelligence capabilities with a 5GW capacity.

The US president has backed aid for the Palestinians, saying people in Gaza are starving and adding that he expected “a lot of good things” in the next month.

Asked whether he supported Israeli plans to expand the war in Gaza, Trump told reporters: “I think a lot of good things are going to happen over the next month, and we’re going to see. We have to help also out the Palestinians. You know, a lot of people are starving on Gaza, so we have to look at both sides.”

This is the second time in his Middle East tour that he referred to the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza.

Since March 2, Israel has cut off aid to the Strip, a tactic it has said is intended to force concessions from Hamas, which is still holding dozens of Israeli captives it seized in October 2023.

Half a million people in the Gaza Strip, or one in five Palestinians, are facing starvation.

President Trump says Iran has a proposal from the US as negotiations continue over the nuclear programme.

Trump’s comments come a day after he claimed that Washington was nearing an agreement with Tehran, despite ongoing diplomatic hurdles.

“We’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace,” Trump said. “We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran. I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this.”

Trump’s remarks come amid intensified negotiations between US and Iranian officials, most recently held in Oman last Sunday.

Earlier today, Trump said he would meet Putin “as soon as we can set it up”.

In response, the Kremlin said a potential meeting is essential but requires considerable preparation and has to yield results when it happens.

“Such a meeting is certainly necessary. It is necessary both primarily from the point of view of bilateral Russian-US relations and from the point of view of having a serious conversation at the highest level about international affairs and on regional problems, including, of course, about the crisis over Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

President Trump started wrapping up his tour of the Middle East with a breakfast for business leaders and a visit to an interfaith place of worship named for the Abraham Accords he negotiated.

The complex in Abu Dhabi features a mosque, church and synagogue – houses of worship for the three Abrahamic faiths.

It was built after the UAE signed the Abraham Accords in 2020, during Trump’s first term. The agreement, which Trump has encouraged other Middle Eastern and North African countries to join, saw the UAE recognise Israel.

US President Donald Trump praised the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi as “beautiful”, as he visited the site with Crown Prince Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak.

The United Arab Emirates is Trump’s final stop on his tour of the Middle East.

Watch below for more:

Here is a recap of the latest developments in Trump’s Middle East trip:

• The UAE’s oil giant ADNOC says the US and UAE plan to spend $440bn in the energy sector through 2035.
• Trump says the tariff deal with China is continuing to be formed and Beijing wanted to make it very badly.
• The US president says his officials will send letters out soon to countries for trade deals.
• Etihad has announced it would buy 28 wide-body Boeing aircraft as part of a deal made during Trump’s trip to the UAE.

Trump is famously transactional and conducts the government like a CEO. And that is how he approaches diplomacy. That’s how he gets things done.

So he’s now tallying up what he’s accomplished in the last four days. He’s going back to the American people and saying, “Look, I made you promises, and I’ve kept them. And here’s my score sheet: In Saudi Arabia I had $600bn in deals. I did $243bn in Qatar. And I’ve got you orders now from UAE.”

He’s saying he’s ushering in a golden era. Trump has to deliver for the American people. He’s making good on those promises.

But it’s also something else. Trump needs this right now, because tariffs are kicking in, the prices are going up, and he promised he was going to bring prices down. So he’s got a little bit of a problem.

He needs good headlines.

The UAE and the US plan to spend $440bn in the energy sector through 2035, Sultan al-Jaber, the head of the Gulf state’s oil giant ADNOC said.

This is just one of the business deals the two countries signed during Trump’s trip to the UAE.

Earlier, Etihad Airways announced an order of 28 Boeing aircraft.

Besides signing lucrative business deals, what is noteworthy about Trump’s trip is his decision to not visit Israel.

Such a move has been seen as a marker of the US administration’s increased focus on business deals with wealthy Gulf countries and a signal of perhaps growing tension between Trump and Netanyahu.

• Trump confirmed talks with Iran over its nuclear programme during Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, despite the Israeli leader’s opposition to negotiations with Tehran.
• Last week, Trump also declared a ceasefire with the Houthis. The deal did not demand an end to the Yemeni group’s attacks against Israel.
• The Trump administration also worked with mediators in Qatar and Egypt to secure the release of US citizen Edan Alexander, who served in the Israeli army. Israeli media reports said Israel was excluded from those talks.
• Trump declared an end to sanctions on Syria and called for a normalisation of relations with the new government in Damascus, which Israel regards as a barely disguised armed group’s regime.

Trump promised that he would restore a golden age in the US. He said it repeatedly on the campaign trail but he could not do it without creating jobs.

Each one of the deals he made on his Middle East trip is a purchase order. These are going to be American goods made in the US, meaning they are going to create American jobs. He had to deliver on those for the American people.

For him, this is keeping a promise to American voters and he had to come back with that or he would have failed.

Here are some highlights from Trump’s briefing this morning in Abu Dhabi:

• We reached a fantastic trade deal with the UK, and we reached another with China.
• The China deal is continuing to be formed and China wanted to make it very badly.
• US officials will send letters out soon to countries for trade deals.
• Essentially, we will be telling other countries what they will be paying to do business in the US.
• Hundreds of miles of wall have been built on the Mexican border.

Trump says the US and the UAE “agreed to create a path” for the latter to buy some of the world’s most advanced AI semiconductors from American companies.

“This will generate billions and billions of dollars in business and accelerate the UAE’s plans to become a really major player in artificial intelligence,” he added.

Trump says the US has “great friendships” with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE.

The US president says in Abu Dhabi that the US was “absent” for four years, referring to the Biden administration.

He also said that there has been great progress towards the UAE’s $1.4bn investment pledge in the US.

“Coming to Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar was very important to me… because of personal relationships maybe more than anything else,” says Trump during the briefing.