Details of the deal are sparse, though what the Trump Administration has described as a “decades-long, multi-billion-dollar” partnership is subject to review by Congress, which could oppose it over its potential to start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
The deal also comes as the Trump Administration continues to pressure Saudi Arabia’s longstanding regional rival Iran to give up its enriched uranium stockpiles and curb the development of its nuclear program. Iran has repeatedly insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who signed the deal with Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, sought to allay those worries. “Rest assured, these agreements uphold the highest standards of nuclear safety and nonproliferation, while relying on the world's best nuclear technology and scientists, designed right here in the United States,” Wright said in a statement.
Saudi Arabia is an oil-rich nation, but Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has stated ambitions for the country to expand its energy generation portfolio beyond fossil fuels. Developing a nuclear power program, Saudi officials have argued, could free up more oil supply and boost exports.
Talks between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have been going on for some time: under the Biden Administration, a civil nuclear cooperation deal was envisioned as part of a broader one that would include formalizing diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Israel. The Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas and the ensuing conflict, however, made the deal elusive.
What’s in the deal?
On Wednesday, the Energy Department announced that Wright and Abdulaziz signed a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement, known as a “123 agreement”, and a bilateral safeguards agreement. The 123 agreement, the department claims, “provides great access for American companies in the Saudi nuclear energy program, benefiting American industry, workers, and supply chains while helping to meet Saudi energy needs.”
A deal with Riyadh could limit the U.S.’s competitors China and Russia from having deep stakes in Saudi Arabia, which has actively engaged with those countries in nuclear development. According to the Journal, Trump Administration officials say that the U.S.’s role would prevent diverting enriched uranium for military purposes and spent reactor fuel from being reprocessed for creating a bomb.
Why is the deal controversial?
Some, however, have sounded the alarm on allowing a Middle Eastern country to potentially enrich uranium, as it could destabilize an already volatile region.
But Saudi Arabia has rejected the “gold standard” commitment. Bin Salman has previously said that if Iran were to develop a nuclear bomb, the kingdom would follow suit—despite Saudi Arabia having ratified the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1988.
Such 123 agreements usually take effect unless Congress jointly disapproves the deal and a two-thirds majority vote to override a presidential veto.
The deal, as reported, sets a “terrible” precedent for nonproliferation, according to Kelsey Davenport, director for Nonproliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association. Davenport posted on social media that a bespoke accord “risks other supplier states, say Russia, negotiating similar bilateral arrangements, rather than letting the IAEA do the job it’s designed to do.”
“In all the regional chaos and the failed efforts to come to another Iran nonproliferation nuclear deal, we are agreeing to a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia,” Jenkins said in a statement on social media. “It is not clear that there is a strategy for the region and a way forward for nuclear nonproliferation.”
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