United States President Donald Trump has said that a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with Saudi Arabia is “totally subject” to the kingdom normalising relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords.
Trump’s statement on Thursday, a day after the agreement was announced, has cast confusion over an already opaque deal, the full details of which have not been released.
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In a post on his Truth Social Account, the US president wrote that the agreement “will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords”.
Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to the claim. Any acceptance of normalising ties with Israel under the accords would represent a major pivot for Riyadh, which has long opposed such a prospect.
Trump’s statement came a day after the US Department of Energy announced that Washington and Riyadh had signed “a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership” as well as a “bilateral safeguard agreement” related to the launching of a civilian nuclear programme.
The deal will require approval from the US Congress.
Several US media reports have suggested that the agreement will allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium domestically, as opposed to importing nuclear fuel.
Such a provision would represent a major departure from how Washington has approached civilian nuclear programmes abroad. It has long opposed providing enrichment technology and knowledge to countries that do not already possess it.
But in his statement on Thursday, Trump appeared to deny the report, writing without further context: “There will be no enrichment of material!”
“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), to which both the US and Saudi Arabia are signatories. Enrichment is needed to create nuclear fuel, but, when done at a much higher level, it is also the basis for creating nuclear weapons.
Iran’s enrichment of nuclear material has been a major justification for the ongoing US-Israel war, launched on February 28. Tehran has long maintained it does not seek a nuclear weapon, while framing enrichment rights as a matter of sovereignty.
Saudi Arabia has also long sought a civilian nuclear programme as it has pursued reducing its dependence on fossil fuels.
Still, nuclear non-proliferation groups have heavily criticised the pact announced on Wednesday, with several lawmakers saying it could lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, particularly if the deal allowed for domestic enrichment.
Some have warned it could incentivise Iran to seek nuclear weapons. Israel has also for years been assessed to possess nuclear weapons, although the US government has long maintained a policy of ambiguity towards the ally.
Turkiye, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates maintain civilian nuclear infrastructure to varying degrees.
‘Many questions’
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna said Trump’s latest claim on the Abraham Accords has cast further confusion over the agreement.
“This…does not appear to be part of the original agreement either,” he said. “So there are many questions that arise, and no doubt there will be many questions in Congress.”
Several Arab countries agreed to normalise ties with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords, initially signed by the UAE and Bahrain in December 2020, during Trump’s first term as US president.
The move made the two countries the first in the region to recognise Israel since Jordan in 1994. Morocco and Sudan have also signed the accords, although Sudan has not ratified the agreement.
Despite the agreements remaining in principle, Israel’s relations with the signatories have cratered amid its genocidal war in Gaza. Prior to the conflict, the accords were largely criticised for side-stepping the Palestinian issue.
Both Trump and the administration of former US President Joe Biden have for years vociferously pushed for Saudi Arabia to join the accords.