During Trump’s first term as US president, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords, which resulted in the historic normalization of relations between Israel and the two Arab countries – the first in decades.
Since then, Sudan, Morocco and Kazakhstan have also signed them.
Saudi Arabia had previously said it would not do so without creating a Palestinian state, but the White House said the deal would be scrapped unless Riyadh rejoined the agreements.
Israel welcomed Trump’s announcement.
In a message on X Office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Saudi Arabia joining the agreements “will be a historic step forward towards peace in the Middle East.”
The statement made no mention of the nuclear deal. However, Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat previously said his country would “get through this” if Saudi Arabia had nuclear power for peaceful purposes.
Others were more critical. Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the newspaper: “Every military nuclear program begins with a civilian one.”
It is widely believed that Israel itself has nuclear weapons, but it neither confirms nor denies that this is the case.
The US-Saudi Arabia deal is described by the US Department of Energy as a “peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement” that will provide “broad access to US companies to the Saudi nuclear energy program.”
The nuclear issue has been at the center of the months-long US-Israeli conflict with Iran, which for years has denied Western accusations that it is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.