Saudi Arabia is in discussions with the United States over a defence agreement that could be finalised during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s expected visit to the White House next month, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

A senior official from the Trump administration told the FT that there were “talks about signing something when the crown prince arrives, but the details are still being worked out.”

According to the report, the proposed deal would resemble the recent US-Qatar defence pact, under which Washington pledged to treat any armed attack on Qatar as a threat to the United States.

That agreement came shortly after Israel’s air strike on Doha last month, which targeted senior Hamas leaders.

The US State Department described defence cooperation with Saudi Arabia as a “strong bedrock of our regional strategy,” but declined to provide details about the possible agreement.

Neither the State Department, the White House, nor the Saudi government responded to Reuters’ request for comment on the FT report.

Last month, Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defence pact with Pakistan, deepening a decades-long security partnership between the two allies.

The pact, signed on September 17 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Riyadh, declared that “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both.”

The agreement aimed to strengthen defence cooperation and bolster joint deterrence capabilities against potential threats.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump also pledged to view any armed attack on Qatar as a threat to US security a stance formalised in a recent defence document allowing American forces to defend the Gulf nation if needed.

Qatar welcomed Trump’s order, describing it as a milestone in strengthening defence ties and bilateral cooperation, its foreign ministry said.

The executive order, which appears to significantly deepen the US commitment to Qatar, comes after Israel last month attempted to kill leaders of Hamas with an airstrike on Doha.

That strike, launched with little advance notice to the Trump administration, caused consternation in Washington, given the close US relationship with Qatar, which hosts the largest US military base in the region.

“The United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States,” the order said.

“In the event of such an attack, the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures including diplomatic, economic and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the State of Qatar and to restore peace and stability.”

The document said top US defence and intelligence officials will maintain contingency planning with Qatar to ensure a rapid response to any attacks.

• Trump’s former adviser has criticised Republican president.
• Bolton’s lawyer denies wrongdoing.
• Two other Trump foes indicted in recent weeks.
  

WASHINGTON: John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, was indicted on Thursday — the third foe of the US president to be hit with criminal charges in recent weeks.

The 76-year-old veteran diplomat was charged by a federal grand jury in Maryland with 18 counts of transmitting and retaining classified information.

The 26-page indictment accuses Bolton of sharing top secret documents by email with two “unauthorised individuals” who are not identified but are believed to be his wife and daughter.

It says he shared more than 1,000 pages of “diary-life” entries about his work as national security advisor via non-government email or a messaging app.

The Justice Department said the documents “revealed intelligence about future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations.”

Each of the counts carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

“Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardises our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

In a statement to US media, Bolton refuted the charges and said he had “become the latest target in weaponising the Justice Department… with charges that were declined before or distort the facts.”

Asked for his reaction to Bolton’s indictment, Trump told reporters his former aide is a “bad guy” and “that’s the way it goes.”

Trump critics in legal jeopardy

Bolton’s indictment follows the filing of criminal charges by the Justice Department against two other prominent critics of the Republican president — New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey.

The 66-year-old James was indicted by a grand jury in Virginia on October 9 on charges of bank fraud and making false statements related to a property she purchased in 2020 in Norfolk, Virginia.

James, who successfully prosecuted Trump for financial fraud, has rejected the charges as “baseless” and described them as “political retribution.”

Comey, 64, pleaded not guilty on October 8 to charges of making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.

His lawyer has said he will seek to have the case thrown out on the grounds that it is a vindictive and selective prosecution.

Trump recently publicly urged Bondi in a social media post to take action against James, Comey and others he sees as enemies, in an escalation of his campaign against political opponents.

Trump did not specifically mention Bolton in the Truth Social post, but he has lashed out at his former advisor in the past and withdrew his security detail shortly after returning to the White House in January.

‘Unfit to be president’

A longtime critic of the Iranian regime, Bolton was a national security hawk and has received death threats from Tehran.

As part of the investigation into Bolton, FBI agents raided his Maryland suburban home and his Washington office in August.

Bolton served as Trump’s national security advisor in his first term and later angered the administration with the publication of a highly critical book, “The Room Where It Happened.”

He has since become a highly visible and pugnacious detractor of Trump, frequently appearing on television news shows and in print to condemn the man he has called “unfit to be president.”

Since January, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against perceived enemies, purging government officials he deemed to be disloyal, targeting law firms involved in past cases against him and pulling federal funding from universities.

After Trump left the White House in 2021, James brought a major civil fraud case against him, alleging he and his real estate company had inflated his wealth and manipulated the value of properties to obtain favourable bank loans or insurance terms.

A New York state judge ordered Trump to pay $464 million, but a higher court removed the financial penalty while upholding the underlying judgment.

The cases against James and Comey were filed by Trump’s handpicked US attorney, Lindsey Halligan, after the previous federal prosecutor resigned, saying there was not enough evidence to charge them.

Appointed to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation by then-president Barack Obama in 2013, Comey was fired by Trump in 2017 amid the probe into whether any members of the Trump presidential campaign had colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 election.

Trump was accused of mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Neither case came to trial, and special counsel Jack Smith — in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president — dropped them both after Trump won the November 2024 presidential election.

As a fragile ceasefire holds, displaced Palestinian residents of Gaza City have returned to their homes only to find rubble, with many of them forced to camp out in makeshift shelters.

In the northwest of the city, empty streets are lined with piles of concrete that once were apartment buildings before the Israel-Hamas war, with some structures completely collapsed.

Hossam Majed discovered his home reduced to rubble. Amid the ruins, the 31-year-old salvaged a few belongings, including some furniture and — crucially given the shortages — a large water tank.

While waiting for the rest of his family to return, he has swept aside some dust and rubble, set up a makeshift shelter and will guard what remains from potential thieves.

“Even food is more expensive than in the south because it’s scarce. There’s no electricity, no water, no internet. I have to walk a kilometre and a half… just to fill two water containers,” he told AFP.

Umm Rami Lubbad left her home last month to seek safety in southern Gaza, in Khan Yunis, as Israel stepped up its offensive on Gaza City in a bid to root out Hamas, the force resisting illegal Israeli occupation.

She had hoped to return to her home as “it was the only remaining hope for a little stability”.

But upon their return, the mother, her young child and two teenage daughters were caught by surprise.

“My heart nearly stopped when I saw the house reduced to rubble,” she told AFP, adding “I was looking as far as my eyes could see — and saw nothing”.

Now, Lubbad and her children are effectively homeless.

“We sleep in the street regardless. I don’t have a tent,” she said, adding that neighbours took them in when artillery shelling made the outdoors too dangerous.

With her children she has gathered some wood, clothing and a gas tank, hoping to use the wood for cooking or to build makeshift toilets.

No home, no supplies

“Life is extremely hard. I don’t know how long we’ll endure,” she said.

She hopes tents will eventually be allowed into Gaza, which is under a strict Israeli siege.

Ahmad al-Abbasi, who had fled south during the bombings, returned to find that nothing of his five-storey building remained in Gaza City.

“We came back north hoping to find our homes and (rebuild our) lives. As you can see… Gaza has turned into a ghost town,” he said.

In front of the ruins he has attempted to set up a makeshift tent beside a Palestinian flag fluttering from a pole.

He has stacked some cinder blocks to anchor iron rods for holding up a sheet, which is meant to serve as a roof.

Though the shelter stands, the wind catches the fabric and the flag, making them flap loudly.

“We’re trying to salvage everything we can. We’ll try to fix even just one room or one tent to shelter ourselves, our children, and our families,” he told AFP.

Mustafa Mahram, another Palestinian who returned to Gaza City, also found his three-storey house reduced to rubble.

“Everything’s gone, turned to ashes… There’s no way to live here,” he lamented.

Mahram has set up a tent near the remains of his house and feels his family has been “thrown into the street”.

“There’s no water — no drinking water, not even salty water, no water at all,” he said.

“None of the essentials of life are available — no food, nothing to drink, nothing. And as you can see, there’s nothing left but rubble.”