WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has raised new questions about the U.S.-Saudi civilian nuclear agreement after saying its implementation depends on Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel, a condition that was absent from the official announcement released a day earlier.
Writing on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, Trump said the agreement would not proceed unless Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords. He added that the deal is limited to peaceful nuclear uses and does not permit uranium enrichment inside the kingdom.
His comments came a day after U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement known as a “123 Agreement.”
Neither the U.S. nor the Saudi announcement of the signing mentioned normalization with Israel. The two governments have also not released the full text of the agreement, leaving it unclear whether normalization is included as part of the deal itself.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Thursday that normalization is a condition for completing the agreement.
Asked during her daily press briefing whether Saudi recognition of Israel was required, she replied, “Yes.” She added that Trump had previously discussed the issue with Arab and Gulf leaders, as well as directly with Saudi officials.
“If they don’t join the Abraham Accords, the deal is off,” she said.
Leavitt did not clarify whether the condition is written into the signed agreement or whether the administration intends to make final approval contingent on Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords. She also declined to discuss the inspection and verification measures associated with the Saudi nuclear program.
The Saudi statement made no reference to Israel or normalization. The Saudi Press Agency said the agreement supports the kingdom’s efforts to diversify its energy sources while adhering to “the highest international standards of nuclear safety, security and nonproliferation.”
It added that the agreement expands bilateral cooperation in the energy sector and creates opportunities for investment, technology transfer and the development of peaceful nuclear energy applications.
Successive U.S. administrations have sought to conclude a civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, but negotiations stalled for years over disagreements concerning uranium enrichment and safeguards designed to prevent the program from being used for military purposes.
During President Joe Biden’s administration, nuclear cooperation became part of a broader package aimed at normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Those efforts collapsed after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Since then, Saudi officials have insisted that normalization cannot move forward without tangible steps toward establishing a Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has publicly rejected the creation of such a state.
Even so, Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that Saudi Arabia’s accession to the Abraham Accords would represent “a historic leap forward for peace in the Middle East.”
An Agreement Yet to Be Published
The agreement takes its name from Section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, which requires a legal framework before the U.S. government or American companies can transfer nuclear technology, materials or equipment to another country.
The agreement is not a contract to build a nuclear reactor. Rather, it establishes the legal foundation for future negotiations over reactor construction, fuel supply, engineering services, training, maintenance and nuclear waste management.
Under the official announcement, the agreement will be submitted to Congress, where lawmakers will have a 90-day period of continuous session to review it. Unless Congress blocks the agreement during that period, it will enter into force.
It remains unclear whether Saudi Arabia has agreed to forgo uranium enrichment on its own territory or to adopt additional safeguards such as the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Additional Protocol, which grants inspectors broader access.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said any U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation agreement would include safeguards to ensure it could not be diverted to a weapons program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency also said it is aware of U.S.-Saudi plans to request the agency’s involvement in verifying certain arrangements related to the agreement, but that it has not yet received a formal request.
Questions in Washington
The absence of the agreement’s full text has drawn criticism from nonproliferation experts and lawmakers, who say the public announcement provides too little information about uranium enrichment, inspections and nuclear fuel management.
Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, told Reuters that Congress should scrutinize the agreement carefully. She urged lawmakers from both parties to reject or amend it if it fails to include clear restrictions preventing the expansion of uranium enrichment capabilities in the region.
Sharon Squassoni, a research professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs, said linking nuclear cooperation to broader political objectives is not unprecedented. She noted that the United States signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Egypt in 1980 following the Camp David Accords.
In an interview with MBN, Squassoni said “Congress could decide to help Trump by conditioning approval of the 123 agreement on the Saudis signing the Abraham Accords. That effort might also lead to other helpful conditions, for example, prohibiting the U.S. from giving the Saudis a nuclear weapons-starter kit in the form of a uranium enrichment plant.”
She suggested that Trump may have added normalization as a separate political condition after the agreement was signed, which could explain why the official announcement made no mention of it.
Christian Coates Ulrichsen, a Middle East scholar at Rice University, told MBN that “the discrepancy in the descriptions of the agreement is likely only to add to perceptions of U.S. unreliability in the Gulf and reinforce views that changing goalposts make it very difficult to trust the current administration, which is likely to feed into doubts about any deal the U.S. might eventually strike with Iran.”
Saudi political analyst Ahmed Al Ibrahim said Riyadh is unlikely to abandon its longstanding conditions regarding normalization and has alternative options should talks with Washington fail, including expanding cooperation with China or Russia.
It remains unclear whether Trump’s comments will reopen negotiations or whether the normalization requirement was part of an undisclosed political understanding reached alongside the agreement.
But just one day after both governments celebrated a landmark nuclear cooperation accord, the deal’s future once again appeared tied to the issue that has delayed it for years: the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
