[Published: Tuesday November 27 2018]
 Kushner inflated US arms sales to Saudi Arabia: Report
WASHINGTON 27 Nov (ANA) - President Donald Trump's senior adviser, Jared Kushner, inflated arms sale figures to Saudi Arabia in order to strengthen Washington's relationship with the Gulf nation, according to an ABC News report.
Citing two officials and three former White House aides, the US network said on Monday that Kushner, who is also Trump's son-in-law, pressured US State and Defense Department officials to inflate numbers in his bid to "symbolically solidify the new alliance between the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia".
In May 2017, Washington and Riyadh inked a much-touted arms deal estimated at $ 110bn, a number that critics have long questioned.
The deal however, which was signed by Defense Secretary James Mattis and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in Riyadh during Trump's first official trip abroad, was a memorandum of intent with "very little legal weight".
"This document does not create any authority to perform any work, award and contract, 'issue articles from stock', transfer funds, or otherwise obligate or create a binding commitment in any way either for the United States or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the document, which ABC obtained of a copy of, states.
In the run-up to the summit, Kushner was quoted by a White House source as telling colleagues at a national security council meeting that "we need to sell them as much as possible"..(ANA)
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