Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) – US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a deal with Saudi Arabia to establish a civilian nuclear programme would be contingent on the kingdom’s recognition of Israel, a move long sought by Washington but resisted by Riyadh. The announcements came as the United States fights a war with Iran that began in large part over concerns about Tehran’s nuclear programme. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said recognition by Saudi Arabia, a regional power and home to Islam’s holiest sites, would mark a “historic leap” forward for peace in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia has resisted a concerted push by the US to join the so-called Abraham Accords with Israel, insisting on a pathway to a Palestinian state before it offers recognition. The deal announced Wednesday to establish a civilian nuclear programme in the Gulf kingdom “will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords”, Trump said. Should it go through, the deal would generate billions of dollars for American companies and would be a major win for Saudi Arabia on both the economic and diplomatic fronts.
But with Trump’s latest announcement, it was unclear whether the deal would ever see the light of day. If Washington “tries to force normalization on Riyadh, it’s not likely to work out very well”, said H.A. Hellyer, senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies. “Would Saudi decide to do a complete 180 on what it has declared for the past three years, or 30 years? Quite dubious,” he told AFP.
And if it does go through, critics have insisted the deal — the text of which was not immediately made public — could precipitate a nuclear race in a region already battered by war. One provision would potentially see US companies build a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia, the Wall Street Journal reported. The US Energy Department made no mention of such a provision and did not offer comment when asked about it by AFP, while Trump added in his Truth Social post that “there will be no enrichment of material!”
The deal will be submitted to Congress for review. US lawmakers from both parties and Israeli officials have previously voiced opposition to such a project over fears Saudi Arabia could eventually convert it to develop nuclear weapons. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that “any agreement that we’re going to make with any country in the world on civil nuclear energy is going to be one that will have safeguards in place to ensure that it can’t be turned into a weapons programme”. Riyadh, like Tehran, has long been adamant about its right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme. Last year it signed a mutual defence pact with nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Policymakers have long feared that if Iran produced a nuclear weapon, the move would set off an arms race across the Gulf. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright dismissed concerns about proliferation, insisting the deal was in Washington’s economic and strategic interest. “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,” he said. The United States has agreements governing nuclear cooperation with more than 50 countries.
Experts said such a deal had been in the works for a while, but some raised concerns about the potential for uranium enrichment on Saudi soil. “It would be a mistake to allow Saudi Arabia the capability for enrichment,” Matthew Kroenig of the Atlantic Council said before the deal was formally announced. “Washington is right to strengthen its relationship with Riyadh, but it should not do so at the expense of its effective nuclear weapons nonproliferation standards.”
© 2024 AFP
