Washington and Riyadh are due to formalize the agreement on Wednesday. It would then go to Congress, where several lawmakers voiced their opposition, fearing that the civilian program would ultimately be used to develop nuclear weapons.
Donald Trump has approved an agreement with Saudi Arabia that will give the kingdom a civilian nuclear program, according to consistent reports by US media, including the Associated Press. The New York Times, citing two unnamed US officials, reports that the government intends to formally sign and announce the agreement with Riyadh on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump’s administration has said the agreement will bring billions of dollars into the U.S. nuclear sector. The 30-year deal calls for US companies to build a uranium enrichment complex in Saudi Arabia if a joint study shows it is justified, the Wall Street Journal reports.
However, U.S. Republican and Democratic lawmakers and Israeli officials have expressed opposition to any civilian nuclear project for Saudi Arabia, fearing it could eventually be used to develop nuclear weapons. The agreement is expected to be presented to the US Congress in the coming days, but ratification is not required.
The project was relaunched by Mohammed bin Salman
“The Saudi nuclear project, announced in the 2000s and revived in recent years by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is officially part of a logic of energy diversification: responding to growing domestic demand, supplying energy-intensive industries and data centers, and exporting an increased share of oil production,” the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS) noted in a note published late last year.
The Fed added, however, that Saudi Arabia is struggling to move forward with the project, in part because it refuses to “give up full control over the fuel cycle, particularly uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing on national soil, as required by Washington.”
The Fed added that Riyadh retains “strategic uncertainty” in the sense that “the program remains officially civilian, but its military potential cannot be ruled out.” At the same time, two weeks after the resumption of hostilities between the US and Iran, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, allies of Tehran, announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia. The decision followed skirmishes between the two camps in Yemen last week, threatening a 2022 truce that is still in place despite its expiration.