There’s more to Donald Trump’s Middle East trip than billion-dollar contracts, parades of camels and a storm back home over Qatar’s offer to give the president a new Air Force One.

President Donald J. Trump’s trip to the Middle East on May 13-16 comes on the heels of more than three months of whirlwind activity in US foreign policy where the region has been a higher priority than it was in the early months of the previous US administration.

The White House, Pentagon and Saudi embassy did not immediately respond to requests for details of the agreement Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

A U.S.-backed humanitarian organization said on Wednesday that it would launch operations in Gaza by the end of May and has asked Israel to allow aid to start flowing into the enclave now under existing procedures until it is set up.

The US president's foreign policy has been laid out unashamedly this week - it has been purely transactional - and in the Middle East it might just pay dividends. But might it work elsewhere, most of all to end Russia's war with Ukraine?

Previously, the US had restrictions on delivering advanced technology to the region as part of broader controls on the spread of US AI-related tech.