Trump to approve nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia despite regional proliferation risks

Trump to approve nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia despite regional proliferation risks

Submitted by
Ayse Betul
on
Wed, 07/22/2026 - 11:56

By omitting critical inspection safeguards, the deal could provide a pathway for Riyadh to divert civilian technology into a nuclear arsenal, US media report

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US President Donald Trump at the US-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, 19 November 2025 (Brendan Smialowski/AFP)

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US President Donald Trump has reportedly approved a 30-year civil nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, granting Riyadh access to American reactor technology despite fears that this could trigger a nuclear arms race with Iran, two US news outlets reported on Wednesday.

Trump's pending signature on the civil nuclear pact and security agreement will allow the proposal to advance to Congress for formal review, according to both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

If approved, the deal would pave the way for tens of billions of dollars in profits for American companies tasked with building Saudi Arabia’s nuclear infrastructure, while reviving a long-standing debate among US lawmakers over nuclear proliferation risks in the Middle East.

Expected to be signed this week, the accord will be finalised by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who first met to discuss the deal in April 2025, the Journal reported.

While Trump officials argue US involvement will ensure the kingdom's civilian program will not be diverted toward weapons production, the deal fails to resolve broader nonproliferation concerns.

And US lawmakers trying to stop it face major legislative hurdles, needing a two-thirds vote to overcome an inevitable presidential veto.

Safeguard concerns

The deal's primary risk lies in its potential path toward domestic uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing, which are the two main methods for producing the essential material for nuclear weapons.

Beyond supplying initial reactors and tech, the agreement requires the US firms to conduct a two-year study on the viability of domestic Saudi uranium enrichment.

Should the study approve, Americans would construct and manage the enrichment plant under a "black box" system, keeping sensitive technology strictly out of Saudi hands.

If the US objects to enrichment, the Saudis would be barred from pursuing domestic enrichment for a period of 10 years.

The accord bypasses Saudi Arabia's signing on to the enhanced safeguards protocol by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which serves as the UN nuclear watchdog's baseline for nonproliferation oversight.

Monitoring responsibilities will instead be handled through a private, US-Saudi bilateral agreement.

Unlike the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia has refused to accept the "gold standard" pledge, which prohibits nations from enriching uranium or reprocessing spent reactor fuel on their own soil.

Early congressional briefings on the Saudi nuclear deal also previewed a special provision that would allow Riyadh a degree of domestic fuel enrichment and reprocessing, according to a source who spoke with CNN.

Past controversies

Discussions surrounding a US-Saudi nuclear accord first began during President Trump’s initial term.

Scrutiny has reignited over Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner’s role as senior adviser at the time, particularly after a 2019 report by House Democrats revealed how he advocated for nuclear transfers to Riyadh over the objections of national security officials.

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Key to this scrutiny was Kushner’s personal finances.

Westinghouse Electric, the nuclear services business trying to sell reactors to Saudi Arabia, is owned by Brookfield Asset Management, the same firm that executed a $1.1 billion bailout of a troubled asset owned by Kushner’s family company.

In 2018, a group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers sponsored an act that would block nuclear cooperation with Riyadh. But the Trump administration continued to push for a deal.

The same year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that if Iran "developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible".

At the time, Saudi negotiators informed the Trump administration that Riyadh would reject any deal granting UN inspectors unrestricted access to search for covert nuclear weapons activity on their land.

By dropping the Biden-era requirement linking US-Saudi nuclear cooperation to the kingdom’s normalisation with Israel, Trump now uncouples the deal from the Abraham Accords.

Yet the deal exposes a foreign policy contradiction, as Washington continues pushing Iran to curtail its nuclear programme while simultaneously helping Riyadh build its own.

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