US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman held a phone call on their strategic defense partnership and on coordinating efforts for regional stability, the Saudi minister said on X. The talks come as a civil nuclear cooperation agreement announced in July, now under review in the US Congress, remains tied by President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords (US-brokered deals normalising Arab states' ties with Israel), a US official told Reuters.