Trump Makes US-Saudi Nuclear Deal Conditional on Joining Abraham Accords

Former President Donald Trump has publicly linked the newly announced U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear pact to Saudi Arabia normalizing diplomatic relations with Israel. This condition, revealed in a social media post, adds a significant geopolitical contingency to an agreement that still requires approval from the U.S. Congress.

Trump Sets New Conditions

In a post on his Truth Social platform Thursday, Trump stated that the nuclear deal "will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords."

Trump also asserted that the agreement pertains only to non-military use and that there would be "no enrichment of material!" This appears to contradict the terms of the deal announced Wednesday, which would reportedly allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium using U.S. technology.

Details of the Nuclear Agreement

The agreement would permit the world's top oil exporter to build nuclear reactors and, critically, enrich uranium and reprocess nuclear waste—both potential pathways to a nuclear weapon. The Trump administration said Wednesday that the deal abides by the nonproliferation standards of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act.

Ad

This provision marks a significant departure from a similar 2009 U.S. agreement with the United Arab Emirates. In that deal, the UAE agreed to forgo both enrichment and reprocessing rights, a standard often referred to as the "gold standard" for nuclear nonproliferation.

Geopolitical Context

Trump's new condition challenges Saudi Arabia's long-held public position that it would not sign the Abraham Accords without an agreement on a roadmap to Palestinian statehood. The accords, brokered during Trump's first term in 2020, saw the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan establish formal ties with Israel.

Saudi Arabia has stated the nuclear agreement supports its efforts to diversify its domestic energy sources. According to Reuters, the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's post.