{"id":553847,"date":"2026-07-22T10:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T10:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/553847\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T10:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T10:19:11","slug":"trump-to-seek-congress-approval-for-us-saudi-nuclear-energy-pact-without-safeguards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/553847\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump to seek Congress approval for US-Saudi nuclear energy pact without safeguards"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The two signed a preliminary agreement in Riyadh last year.<\/p>\n

According to a report<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tChris Wright, US Secretary of Energy, left, and Saudi Arabia Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman, shake hands after exchanging documents during a signing ceremony at the Royal Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. (Alex Brandon\/AP)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

However, the prospect of Israeli-Saudi normalization has appeared increasingly unlikely amid the war against Hamas in Gaza and Israel\u2019s rejection of Palestinian statehood, a key Saudi demand.<\/p>\n

The White House and US Department of Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

There was immediate pushback from lawmakers in Israel.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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 \u2014 because we can\u2019t rely on it for the long term \u2014 has a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that though \u201cSaudi Arabia today is in a good direction, tomorrow it could reverse on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tMinister of Heritage Amichay Eliyahu attends a unity conference at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 22, 2026 (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Opposition lawmaker Avigor Liberman, a former defense minister who leads the hawkish Yisrael Beytenu party, posted to X: \u201cEveryone 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel, he said, \u201cmust 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, he told the the Kan public broadcaster that such an agreement would be \u201ccompletely unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery military nuclear program starts off as a civilian program,\u201d he said, pointing to Iran\u2019s nuclear enrichment efforts. \u201cThe agreement to allow enrichment on Saudi soil crosses a red line,\u201d he added. \u201cIt puts the whole Middle East into an insane nuclear arms race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberman also worried that a Saudi nuclear facility will become a target for Iranian attacks.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tYisrael Beitenu party chairman MK Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on June 15, 2026 (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be firm and not stutter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cis a sign of the loss of trust between Netanyahu and Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe friction between them means that Trump acts without taking Netanyahu\u2019s stance into account,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

No block on enrichment, no IAEA inspections<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUS President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House, in Washington, July 21, 2026. (Mark Schiefelbein\/AP)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The agreement does not include the \u201cGold Standard\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

The agreement also does not include the \u201cAdditional Protocol,\u201d which grants the UN\u2019s International Atomic Energy Agency broad and more intrusive oversight of a country\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

To block the agreement, Congress would need to pass a joint resolution and have a two-thirds majority to override any presidential veto.<\/p>\n

Many Democrats \u200band some Republicans, including Trump\u2019s Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he served in the Senate, have \u2060insisted any agreement include guardrails.<\/p>\n

Proliferation concerns<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tThis undated photograph released by the United Arab Emirates\u2019 state-run WAM news agency shows the under-construction Barakah nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi\u2019s Western desert. (Arun Girija\/Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation\/WAM via AP)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The crown prince told CBS in 2018 that \u201cSaudi 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The kingdom has also said it wants to reserve the right to enrich uranium.<\/p>\n

The United Arab Emirates agreed to the \u201cGold Standard\u201d in 2009 when it signed a 123 Agreement with Washington, which did not include enabling enrichment.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The Trump administration plans to submit to Congress a pact with Saudi Arabia to share nuclear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[251349,210137,24405,63326,42,43,37319,251348,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-553847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-abdulaziz-bin-salman","tag-amichay-eliyahu","tag-avigdor-liberman","tag-chris-wright","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-nuclear-power","tag-saudi-nuclear-power","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}