President Trump announced a significant new condition on a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia just one day after his own energy secretary signed the deal, declaring that it is contingent on Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords and normalizing relations with Israel. The surprise announcement caught Saudi officials, Israeli leaders and reportedly even Trump’s own advisers off guard. The move throws a multibillion-dollar agreement into uncertainty and reopens a diplomatic condition many believed had already been set aside.
Story Highlights
- Trump said the Saudi nuclear deal, signed Wednesday by Energy Secretary Chris Wright, is “totally subject to” Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords
- The agreement includes a 123 Agreement and bilateral safeguards agreement, with a two-year study on whether uranium enrichment is necessary
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office welcomed the condition, calling Saudi normalization a “historic leap forward for peace”
- Saudi Arabia has said normalization requires progress toward Palestinian statehood, a position Netanyahu has dismissed
What Happened
President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday that a civil nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia, signed just one day earlier, would be approved only if Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords, the diplomatic framework established during his first term that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab nations. The statement introduced a major condition that had not been mentioned when the Energy Department first announced the deal.
The nuclear agreement was formally signed Wednesday by Chris Wright, the U.S. energy secretary, and Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister. It includes what is known as a 123 Agreement, a legal framework governing civilian nuclear cooperation, along with an accompanying bilateral safeguards agreement. According to a Trump administration memo reviewed by NPR, the deal would give U.S. companies priority access to supply nuclear reactors and fuel for a Saudi civilian nuclear energy program, with the agreement subject to a 90-day congressional review period.
In his Truth Social post, Trump emphasized that the deal involves “no enrichment of material,” writing that the agreement “pertains only to non-military use such as the ones that Iran and UAE (and others) already have.” He added that the deal “will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reinforced the message Thursday, stating that Trump “is always the final dealmaker” and that the agreement is “off” unless Saudi Arabia normalizes diplomatic relations with Israel.
The announcement represents a reversal of sorts. According to a source familiar with the matter who spoke to CNN, Israel normalization had historically been a condition for U.S.-Saudi nuclear cooperation, including as recently as the Biden administration, but that requirement became increasingly untenable for Saudi Arabia following Israel’s military response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. Separate reporting from Reuters earlier this year indicated the Trump administration had explicitly delinked the nuclear talks from Israel normalization requirements ahead of Trump’s visit to the region, making Thursday’s reversal all the more unexpected.
Saudi Arabia has consistently maintained that normalizing relations with Israel would first require clear progress toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, a position Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly dismissed. Despite the substantive disagreement, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement Thursday welcoming Trump’s new condition, calling Saudi Arabia’s potential accession to the Abraham Accords “an historic leap forward for peace in the Middle East.”
Why It Matters
The abrupt introduction of a major new condition on an already-signed international agreement raises questions about the coordination and predictability of the administration’s Middle East diplomacy. Nonproliferation experts and lawmakers who spoke to The Hill suggested that even Trump’s own senior advisers may have been caught off guard by the announcement, a dynamic that complicates ongoing negotiations not just with Saudi Arabia but with other regional partners watching how the United States handles its commitments.
For nuclear nonproliferation policy, the deal carries substantial stakes regardless of the Israel normalization question. Reporting has indicated the underlying framework could pave the way for a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia following a joint two-year study, a prospect that has already drawn concern from lawmakers and nonproliferation experts about the potential for a broader enrichment race in the Middle East, particularly given Iran’s own nuclear program and ongoing conflict with the United States.
For Saudi Arabia, the new condition creates a genuine diplomatic dilemma. The kingdom has invested significant political capital in linking any normalization with Israel to progress on Palestinian statehood, a position that resonates domestically and across the broader Arab world. Being asked to abandon or soften that position in exchange for a nuclear cooperation deal it may view as already secured puts Saudi leadership in an uncomfortable position.
For Congress, which has 90 days to review the signed agreement and could block it with a two-thirds majority vote, the added uncertainty about whether the deal will ultimately proceed as signed adds a layer of complexity to what was already expected to be a contentious review process given nonproliferation concerns raised by both parties.
Economic and Global Context
The nuclear cooperation agreement represents a potentially significant economic opportunity for the American nuclear industry, which has sought expanded access to the growing Saudi energy market as the kingdom pursues an ambitious diversification strategy away from oil dependency. The deal’s framing as a “decades-long, multibillion-dollar partnership,” according to the Energy Department’s own description, underscores the commercial stakes involved for U.S. reactor and fuel suppliers.
Saudi Arabia’s pursuit of civilian nuclear capacity fits within its broader Vision 2030 economic diversification plan, which has prioritized energy sector modernization alongside investments in technology, tourism and other non-oil industries. A stalled or collapsed nuclear deal with the United States could push Saudi Arabia toward alternative nuclear partners, a scenario American officials have previously cited as a reason to move forward with cooperation rather than risk ceding the market to competitors such as Russia or China.
The broader Abraham Accords framework has already reshaped diplomatic and economic relationships across the Middle East since 2020, with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco establishing formal ties with Israel. Saudi accession has long been viewed as the most consequential potential addition to the framework given the kingdom’s regional influence and its role as custodian of Islam’s holiest sites.
Regional dynamics tied to the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran add further complexity to the nuclear deal’s timing. Netanyahu’s office explicitly referenced the “joint American and Israeli military action” against Iran as having created new possibilities for expanding Middle East peace efforts, suggesting Israeli officials view the current moment as an opportunity to press for Saudi normalization.
Implications
In the coming weeks, the central question will be whether the Trump administration’s new condition represents genuine leverage aimed at extracting Saudi concessions on Israel normalization, or whether it effectively places the nuclear deal in limbo indefinitely, as some nonproliferation experts have suggested may be the practical outcome. Saudi Arabia’s public response, or lack thereof, will offer an early signal of how Riyadh intends to navigate the situation.
For Congress, the 90-day review period will now unfold against the backdrop of this unresolved condition, likely intensifying scrutiny from lawmakers already concerned about enrichment and proliferation risks tied to the underlying agreement, regardless of how the Israel normalization question resolves.
For the broader Middle East peace process, the episode illustrates the continued centrality of the Abraham Accords to the Trump administration’s regional strategy, even as the practical prospects for near-term Saudi normalization remain constrained by the kingdom’s stated position on Palestinian statehood.
For the nuclear industry and Saudi Arabia’s energy diversification plans, prolonged uncertainty over the deal’s status could delay concrete implementation steps, including the joint study on enrichment feasibility, leaving both American companies and Saudi planners waiting for clarity on a partnership that seemed settled just days ago.
Source
Trump places new condition on signed Saudi nuclear deal, says country must join Abraham Accords
