The United States and Saudi Arabia have signed a landmark nuclear deal that could allow the Gulf kingdom to enrich uranium on its soil – an agreement that has sparked fears of a nuclear arms race in an already unstable region, coming as the US fights a war with Iran partly to prevent Tehran from doing exactly that.
The US Department of Energy announced on Wednesday that its secretary, Chris Wright, and Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman had signed a “peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement”, along with a “bilateral safeguards agreement”. The department called it a “decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership” that would give American companies “great access” to the Saudi nuclear energy programme.
“US and Saudi Arabia sign nuclear deal sparking fears of uranium enrichment and arms race.”
But the full text of the deal has not been made public. US media reports suggest it could allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium – which can be used as fuel for power plants, but also to make nuclear bombs. Experts say that would mark a first for the US and could risk future nuclear proliferation.
The timing is highly controversial. In February, US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a war with Iran to stop it enriching uranium and acquiring a nuclear weapon – something Tehran denies planning to do. Now, critics accuse the administration of hypocrisy.
“Trump claims his war on Iran is about stopping an authoritarian country from enriching nuclear fuel. Now he’s letting his best friends in Saudi Arabia – one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world – do exactly that. This is absurd,” Senator Bernie Sanders wrote on X.
The deal will be submitted to Congress for review. Under US law, lawmakers have 90 session days to object, but would need a two-thirds majority to override a presidential veto. Some nuclear experts have urged Congress to reject it.
“We urge all members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to recognise the risks and to exercise their power to reject or modify Trump’s proposed nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia so as not to open the door for nuclear proliferation in the Middle East even wider,” said Kelsey Davenport, director for non-proliferation policy at the Arms Control Association.
Saudi Arabia has long said that if it did not partner with the US, it could turn to China or Russia, which have different proliferation standards. The kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told CBS News in 2018 that his nation was not planning to acquire a nuclear weapon, but that “without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible”.
The deal also lacks a so-called Additional Protocol that would allow the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency to carry out snap inspections – unlike a similar US deal with the UAE in 2009. A provision in the agreement could see US companies build a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia, according to the Wall Street Journal.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright defended the agreement, saying: “Rest assured, 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.”
The Saudi government released a statement saying the deal “represents an extension of existing co-operation between the two countries in the energy sector”, noting that it comes after the Saudi leader visited Washington last November.
Whether Congress will block the deal remains uncertain, but the stakes are high: if approved, it could set a new precedent for US nuclear cooperation in a region already on edge.