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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to submit to Congress a pact with Saudi Arabia to share nuclear power technology that does not include the safeguards the US has long said would stop materials from being used in nuclear weapons programs, sources said Wednesday.
The emerging deal also reportedly does not condition such a move on normalization with Israel, a demand Washington made in the past. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government, but a minister said Israel would work to oppose the deal, and two former defense ministers slammed the reports, saying it would lead to an unchecked nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
The sources said the administration would submit to Congress within days a document known as a 123 Agreement that will be signed by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman.
The two signed a preliminary agreement in Riyadh last year.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, US President Donald Trump has formally approved the agreement, which could potentially pave the way for Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium. Other outlets also said Trump has approved the deal.
The newspaper and the New York Times both noted that unlike his predecessor Joe Biden, Trump was not conditioning US-Saudi nuclear cooperation on the kingdom normalizing ties with Israel.
The Biden administration had sought to include a civil nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia as part of a larger deal that would see the kingdom normalize relations with Israel.
However, the prospect of Israeli-Saudi normalization has appeared increasingly unlikely amid the war against Hamas in Gaza and Israel’s rejection of Palestinian statehood, a key Saudi demand.
The White House and US Department of Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
There was immediate pushback from lawmakers in Israel.
Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party told the Kan public broadcaster that Israel will act to prevent the deal going ahead, saying it could not be guaranteed that Saudi Arabia would not become hostile in the future.
“We will do as much as we can, in the international arena, and in our foreign policy, to halt the possibility that in the Middle East a certain country — because we can’t rely on it for the long term — has a nuclear weapon.”
He said that though “Saudi Arabia today is in a good direction, tomorrow it could reverse on us.”
Opposition lawmaker Avigor Liberman, a former defense minister who leads the hawkish Yisrael Beytenu party, posted to X: “Everyone needs to understand that the Saudi civilian nuclear program will end up with nuclear weapons and lead to a mad arms race across the entire Middle East.”
Israel, he said, “must make it clear and unequivocal: We will oppose this in every way. The Israeli government must act decisively against the American Congress to stop the process.”
Later, he told the the Kan public broadcaster that such an agreement would be “completely unacceptable.”
“Every military nuclear program starts off as a civilian program,” he said, pointing to Iran’s nuclear enrichment efforts. “The agreement to allow enrichment on Saudi soil crosses a red line,” he added. “It puts the whole Middle East into an insane nuclear arms race.”
Liberman also worried that a Saudi nuclear facility will become a target for Iranian attacks.
Noting that US and Israeli interests are not always aligned, he called on Jerusalem and pro-Israel groups like AIPAC and others to fight the pact and convince Congress to vote against it, even if it means splitting with US President Donald Trump.
“We need to be firm and not stutter,” he said.
Former prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak said the fact that the deal does not include an agreement for Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel “is a sign of the loss of trust between Netanyahu and Trump.”
“The friction between them means that Trump acts without taking Netanyahu’s stance into account,” he told Army Radio. However, he conceded that Saudi enrichment could have been acceptable had it been part of a normalization agreement, along with tight US supervision.
No block on enrichment, no IAEA inspections
The agreement refers to Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and is required to permit the US government and American companies to work with entities in the kingdom to develop a multibillion-dollar civil nuclear industry.
The deal is expected to last 30 years and is also expected to involve US firms in developing the program. The deal could allow for the building of a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia following a joint US-Saudi study, sources said.
The agreement does not include the “Gold Standard” that would block the kingdom from enriching uranium and reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, both of which are potential pathways to nuclear weapons, said the sources familiar with the agreement.
The agreement also does not include the “Additional Protocol,” which grants the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency broad and more intrusive oversight of a country’s nuclear activities, such as the power to carry out snap inspections at undeclared locations, sources told Reuters, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
One of the sources said the administration would submit the agreement as soon as Wednesday, and another said it would be submitted in a week or so. A third, who did not say whether the agreement lacks safeguards, said it would be submitted soon. Two US officials told the NY Times that Washington will formally sign the agreement with the Saudis on Wednesday and then announce the details to Congress.
According to the newspaper, there are two secret side sections in the agreement with the Saudis. Some members of Congress may not vote unless they are made public, it said, but the administration would be expected to say they relate to proprietary business details and national security issues.
To block the agreement, Congress would need to pass a joint resolution and have a two-thirds majority to override any presidential veto.
Many Democrats and some Republicans, including Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he served in the Senate, have insisted any agreement include guardrails.
Proliferation concerns
Wright had said the preliminary agreement was not about enrichment and contained all the nonproliferation standards in the Atomic Energy Act, which are among the strongest in the world.
One of the sources told Reuters the agreement provides a legal pathway for cooperation on the nuclear fuel cycle, which includes uranium enrichment, but does not obligate the United States to transfer any related capabilities or technology to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has long said if Iran developed a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabia would too, fueling concern among arms control advocates and some US lawmakers over a civil nuclear deal.
The crown prince told CBS in 2018 that “Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.”
The kingdom has also said it wants to reserve the right to enrich uranium.
The United Arab Emirates agreed to the “Gold Standard” in 2009 when it signed a 123 Agreement with Washington, which did not include enabling enrichment.
Once 123 agreements are submitted to Congress, they go into a review period of about 90 days of continuous congressional sessions for lawmakers to object, or they go into force.
The post Trump to seek Congress approval for US-Saudi nuclear energy pact without safeguards appeared first on The Times of Israel.
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