Trump backtracks on Saudi nuclear deal, demands Israel normalisation
US President Donald Trump appeared to backtrack on the Saudi nuclear deal on Thursday by making it conditional on Riyadh normalising ties with Israel.
“The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!)... pertains only to non-military use such as the ones that Iran and UAE (and others) already have, will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“The United States is not opposed to Civil (Non-Enriched) Nuclear Facilities,” he added.
Washington and Riyadh had agreed to allow the kingdom to build reactors using US technology.
Earlier reports indicated that Saudi Arabia could enrich uranium without accepting the rapid United Nations inspections Washington previously demanded from Iran.
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Saudi Arabia maintains that it will not normalise relations with Israel without a credible roadmap towards Palestinian statehood.
The US and Saudi Arabia signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement that could allow Riyadh to develop uranium enrichment capabilities.
The US Department of Energy announced the “peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement” on Wednesday, describing it as the basis for a long-term partnership between the two countries.
It said the deal would “lay the foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership that advances several priority economic and strategic objectives, including nuclear nonproliferation”.
Congress will now review the agreement and has 90 session days to block it before it takes effect.
Israel and its pro-Israeli agents in the US have come out against the deal.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has previously insisted that any nuclear agreement with Riyadh would not contribute to proliferation.
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