Saudi Arabia's foreign minister borrows Donald Trump's 'drain the swamp' slogan

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister has borrowed a familiar slogan from Donald Trump to say his country's alliance with the United States would help "drain the swamp" of extremism.

Speaking alongside US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Adel al-Jubeir called for an end to antagonism between the US and Saudi Arabia.

He said: "If we can change the conversation in the Islamic world from enmity towards the US to partnership with the US, and if we can change the conversation in the US and in the west from enmity towards the Islamic world to one of partnership, we would have truly changed our world.

"And we would have truly drowned the voices of extremism and we would have drained the swamps from which extremism and terrorism emanates."

Mr Trump frequently used the slogan to call for reform of the political establishment in Washington.

Mr Jubeir's comments come after Mr Trump signed an arms sale deal worth around $110bn aimed to boost security in the Arab Gulf region in the face of Iranian aggression.

The military package includes tanks, combat ships, missile defense systems, radar and communications, and cybersecurity technology.

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Mr Tillerson said the series of military and private sector deals agreed by both sides would send a "strong message to our common enemies."

"This huge arm sales package reduces the burden on the United States to provide the same equipment to our own military forces," he said.

"It lowers demand on our own military, but it also lowers the cost to our own people."