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Deal Signed, Then Tied
President Donald Trump said he would not go forward with a civil nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia unless the Saudis agreed to normalization in relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords, linking the U.S.-Saudi nuclear cooperation agreement to Israel ties.
“The United States and Saudi Arabia have agreed a nuclear cooperation deal to establish a civilian nuclear programme in the kingdom”
The U.S. Department of Energy said Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed an agreement on developing the first commercial nuclear reactors in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, which it said would next go to Congress for review.
Trump emphasized the condition in the Oval Office, telling reporters, "In order to do it, they have to be a member of the Abraham Accords," while he also said he did not talk about the accords with Wright before the Cabinet member signed the deal.
The Al Jazeera explainer described the deal as expected to last 30 years and to transfer U.S. technology and expertise, but said Trump’s new condition complicated the path forward and left it unclear when, or whether, the deal would be put before Congress.
Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote that Trump’s demand has left the deal "in a state of diplomatic suspension."
Officials, Critics, and Israel
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump said if the Saudis don’t join the Abraham Accords, "the deal is off," while NPR reported the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
NPR also quoted Steven Cook saying, "No one in Washington really knows how it's going to work," as the Saudi kingdom has long insisted it will not normalize relations with Israel until there is a clear pathway to establish a Palestinian state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office welcomed Trump’s condition, saying, "Saudi Arabia's joining of the Abraham Accords would be an historic leap forward for peace in the Middle East," and the BBC reported that the deal abandoned long-standing American demands to condition normalization on receiving American nuclear technology.
In Israel, Yoel Guzansky of the Institute for National Security Studies said he was alarmed that the agreement appeared to let Saudi Arabia enrich its own nuclear fuel in-country, warning that "Saudi insistence on enrichment in Saudi Arabia ... was the thing that got [previous] negotiations stuck."
The Hill reported that Bryan Clark of the Hudson Institute said the conditions most likely caught the Saudis off guard, describing it as "This is the president trying to kind of backtrack and address the concerns from a lot of Israel supporters."
Congress, Enrichment, and Risk
The BBC said the nuclear deal’s text was not yet published and that it was unclear whether the Abraham Accords condition was spelled out in the agreement or agreed to by Saudi Arabia, while Al Jazeera said the deal must be submitted to the U.S. Congress for review.
“The United States announced on Wednesday an agreement with Saudi Arabia to equip the kingdom with a civil nuclear program, while pledging safeguards against the proliferation of this energy amid the conflict with Iran”
Al Jazeera reported that Saudi Arabia has reportedly not agreed to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s "additional protocol" document, while it said Saudi Arabia has agreed to a bilateral safeguards agreement with the U.S. and that the IAEA was awaiting a request from Washington and Riyadh to implement verification measures.
Time Magazine described the agreement as a "decades-long, multi-billion-dollar" partnership that could pave the way for uranium enrichment in the kingdom, and it said the deal is subject to review by Congress, which could oppose it over potential to start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
The Hill said the deal includes a "123 Agreement" and an accompanying "bilateral safeguards agreement" and that under the terms the two countries agree to a two-year study to see whether enrichment is necessary, while it also quoted Sen. Tim Kaine worrying the deal signed doesn’t allow the IAEA to do inspections like other 123 agreements.
DW reported that the Saudi deal is bilateral only and does not include the IAEA "additional protocol" that the UAE signed in 2009, and it warned that critics fear the Saudi deal could eventually allow enrichment that could be diverted for weapons.
