President Donald Trump has approved a nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia that permits the kingdom to enrich uranium for civilian power, according to reports. The deal, expected to be formally announced as soon as Wednesday, faces significant congressional scrutiny over nonproliferation standards and the potential for a regional arms race.
Terms of the U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Agreement
The agreement establishes a framework for a 30-year partnership in civilian nuclear energy, a deal described by some reports as being worth tens of billions of dollars. The arrangement is structured to allow U.S. firms, such as Westinghouse, to play a key role in building out the kingdom’s civilian nuclear infrastructure, including an American-built uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia, if deemed necessary following a joint U.S.-Saudi study. The proposal itself has been in discussion for years, with the foundation for the current plan initially worked out when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Washington in November.
At that time, the two governments drafted what is known as a 123 agreement, which lays out conditions for nuclear energy cooperation and includes stipulations aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. While the administration maintains the deal includes safeguards to keep the Saudis from enriching weapons-grade fuel, it notably deviates from the standard nonproliferation requirements. Unlike the United Arab Emirates’ 123 agreement, which was signed without seeking enrichment, this deal includes a waiver that exempts Saudi Arabia from the aggressive international inspections required in other nuclear reactor deals. Because the agreement does not include conventional international inspections, President Trump signed a separate national security waiver to allow the project to move forward.
Congressional Review and Legislative Hurdles
Once formally signed and announced, the details of the agreement will be shared with Congress for review. The deal is certain to spark a heated debate in Congress, where many lawmakers have long expressed concern that exporting enrichment capabilities will lead to a proliferation of nuclear arms. Lawmakers have also voiced concerns regarding the lack of monitoring safeguards, specifically the absence of the enhanced monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that is found in the so-called additional protocol to which Iran had been subjected under the 2015 nuclear deal.
For more on this story, see Trump Approves 30-Year Nuclear Cooperation Pact With Saudi Arabia.
The political context of the deal has shifted significantly since earlier negotiations. During the Biden administration, access to nuclear technology was frequently conditioned on Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel—a process that was sidetracked following the October 7 Hamas attacks and Israel’s subsequent occupation of Gaza. The Trump administration has delinked the two issues, pursuing the nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia separate from its push to get the kingdom to join the Abraham Accords.
Regional Security and the Iran Factor
The timing of the announcement remains controversial, as the United States is currently engaged in a war with Iran, fought in part to prevent Tehran from enriching uranium domestically and to make it near-impossible for Iran to build a nuclear weapon. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has spoken openly about working to develop nuclear weapons if Iran is not stopped from getting them, an intention Iran has repeatedly denied. Throughout lengthy talks stretching over more than one administration, the U.S. also feared that Riyadh would look elsewhere for nuclear technology if the U.S. did not provide what it wanted. Rosemary Kelanic, the head of the Middle East programme at Defense Priorities, is among those monitoring the regional implications of the shift.
