Two agreements on \u201cpeaceful nuclear cooperation\u201d and \u201cbilateral safeguards\u201d signed by US energy secretary and his Saudi counterpart
\n washington
\nPresident Donald Trump said on Thursday that a civil nuclear deal between the US and Saudi Arabia was conditional on Riyadh joining \u200bthe Abraham Accords to normalise relations with Israel.
\nThe US and Saudi \u200cArabia announced an agreement on Wednesday on civil nuclear power, letting the kingdom enrich uranium and build nuclear reactors using US technology, without requiring the snap UN inspections that Washington has previously demanded from \u200bIran. The deal has to pass the US Congress to go into \u200bforce.
\nUS Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed the peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement, commonly known as a 123 Agreement, along with a bilateral safeguards agreement, the agency said in a statement.
\n\u201cThe 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) \u200balready have, will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining \u200bthe very respected and successful Abraham Accords,\u201d Trump said in a post on Truth Social, referring to normalising ties with Israel. \u201cThe United States is not opposed to Civil (Non-Enriched) Nuclear Facilities,\u201d Trump said.
\nThe \u200bSaudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment \u200bon Trump\u2019s post. Saudi Arabia\u2019s longstanding position has been that it would not sign the Abraham \u200cAccords unless there was an agreement on a roadmap to Palestinian statehood.
\nEarlier today, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the deal will undergo congressional approval and will include safeguards.
\n\u201cAny agreement that we are going to make with any country in the world on civil nuclear energy is going to be one that will have safeguards in place to ensure that it cannot be turned into a weapons program,\u201d Rubio told reporters in the Philippines.
\nThe United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords during Trump\u2019s first term in 2020, breaking a longstanding taboo to become the first Arab states to recognise Israel in a \u200bquarter century. Morocco and \u200bSudan followed suit.
\nThe Trump administration on Wednesday said the civil nuclear deal abides by nonproliferation agreements in the US Atomic Energy Act, which \u200bare among the world\u2019s strongest.
\nSaudi Arabia, the world\u2019s top oil \u200bexporter, said the agreement supports efforts to diversify energy sources, and includes the \u201chighest international standards\u201d of nuclear safety, security and nonproliferation.
\nThe deal would let Saudi Arabia enrich uranium and reprocess nuclear waste, \u200bboth of which are potential pathways to a \u200bnuclear weapon. The UAE agreed to forgo both when it signed a similar deal with the US \u200bin 2009.<\/p>\n
Historic leap forward for peace in Middle East, says Netanyahu
\nSaudi Arabia\u2019s joining of the Abraham Accords \u201cwould be an historic leap forward for peace in the Middle East,\u201d Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s office wrote on X on Thursday.
\nNetanyahu did not mention the civil nuclear deal between the US and Saudi Arabia, which was announced on Wednesday. US President Donald Trump had said that the deal was conditional on Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two agreements on \u201cpeaceful nuclear cooperation\u201d and \u201cbilateral safeguards\u201d signed by US energy secretary and his Saudi counterpart washington President Donald Trump said on Thursday that a civil nuclear deal between the US and Saudi Arabia was conditional on Riyadh joining \u200bthe Abraham Accords to normalise relations with Israel. The US and Saudi \u200cArabia announced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-557995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n