US President Donald Trump said a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia would be “fully compliant” with the kingdom normalizing relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords.
President Trump’s statement on Thursday, a day after announcing the deal, adds to the confusion surrounding the deal, which is already opaque and details have not yet been made public.
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In a post on his Truth social account, President Trump wrote that the deal “will be approved, but entirely conditional on Saudi Arabia joining the highly respected and successful Abraham Accords.”
Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to the claims. Accepting normalization of relations with Israel under the deal would be a major turning point for Riyadh, which has long opposed such a prospect.
President Trump’s statement came a day after the U.S. Department of Energy announced that Washington and Riyadh signed a “peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement for a multi-decade, multibillion-dollar partnership” and a “bilateral safeguards agreement” related to the launch of a civilian nuclear program.
The agreement requires approval from the U.S. Congress.
Several US media reports have suggested that the deal would allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium domestically rather than importing nuclear fuel.
Such a provision would represent a major departure from the way the U.S. government approaches its civilian nuclear programs overseas. It has long opposed providing enrichment technology and knowledge to countries that don’t already have it.
However, President Trump appeared to deny the report in a statement Thursday, writing without further context that “enrichment of material does not exist!”
“The United States is not opposed to civil (non-enriched) nuclear facilities,” he added.
Uranium enrichment is not prohibited under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which the United States and Saudi Arabia are signatories to. Enrichment is required to produce nuclear fuel, but enrichment to higher levels also provides the basis for producing nuclear weapons.
Iran’s nuclear enrichment is the primary justification for the ongoing US-Israel war, which began on February 28th. The Iranian government has long maintained that it does not seek nuclear weapons, while viewing enrichment rights as a matter of sovereignty.
Saudi Arabia has also been exploring a civilian nuclear program for years as it seeks to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.
Still, nuclear non-proliferation groups have strongly criticized the deal announced Wednesday, with several lawmakers saying it could lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, especially if the deal allows for domestic enrichment.
Some warn that it could encourage Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Israel has long been regarded as possessing nuclear weapons, but the US government has long maintained an ambiguous policy towards its allies.
Turkiye, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates maintain civilian nuclear infrastructure to varying degrees.
“Lots of questions”
Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, D.C., said President Trump’s recent claims about the Abraham Accords are causing further confusion over the agreement.
“This…doesn’t seem to have been part of the original agreement,” he said. “So there are a lot of questions that arise, and I’m sure there will be a lot of questions in Congress.”
Several Arab countries have agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords, which were first signed by the UAE and Bahrain in December 2020 during US President Donald Trump’s first term.
The move marks the first time the two countries have recognized Israel in the region since Jordan in 1994. Morocco and Sudan have also signed the agreement, but Sudan has not ratified it.
Despite an agreement in principle remaining, relations between Israel and the signatories have soured amid the genocidal war in Gaza. Before the conflict, the agreement was largely criticized for avoiding the Palestinian issue.
The administrations of President Trump and former U.S. President Joe Biden have for years loudly pushed for Saudi Arabia to join the deal.
