Trending 
US President Donald Trump has announced plans to end a 10-year security assistance agreement with Israel, which provides the country with $3.8 billion in annual military aid until 2028.
Trump said Israel was comfortable with the decision, adding that he had agreed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the assistance.
The agreement, which began in 2019, was signed under former US President Barack Obama three years earlier.
Speaking on Tuesday during an interview on the US television programme, Fox and Friends, Trump said Washington would still support Israel if the country needed assistance.
“We’ll help Israel if they need it,” he said.
“Israel’s our number one; we give them more than anybody else, and they no longer need it … If they did need it, I would say keep it going,” Trump added.
Under the agreement, Israel receives $3.8 billion annually in US military assistance to purchase weapons and other defence equipment.
Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has received more than $300 billion in US economic and military assistance, adjusted for inflation, according to figures from the Council on Foreign Relations.
This makes Israel the largest cumulative recipient of American assistance since 1946.
Netanyahu has previously expressed his desire to reduce Israel’s dependence on American military support.
In June, the Israeli Prime Minister called for his country to strengthen its military independence and reduce its reliance on Washington.
In January, he told The Economist that he hoped to achieve the goal within 10 years.
He also told US broadcaster CBS in May that he wanted American military assistance to eventually reach “zero”.
Meanwhile, Trump cited criticism from Abdul El-Sayed, a left-wing Democrat running for the US Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections, as part of his reasoning for ending the assistance.
El-Sayed has attracted support by tapping into public dissatisfaction and opposition to Israel’s actions.
“Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an El-Sayed when they don’t need it?” Trump said during the Fox and Friends interview, referring to Israel and the American aid.
