President Donald Trump has submitted a proposed U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear agreement to Congress but will allow it to advance only if Riyadh normalizes relations with Israel and joins the Abraham Accords, according to an administration official.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
President Donald Trump has formally sent Congress a proposed civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia that could open the kingdom to tens of billions of dollars in U.S. nuclear technology, while maintaining that the deal will not take effect unless Riyadh establishes diplomatic relations with Israel.
The agreement was transmitted to Congress on Monday after the United States and Saudi Arabia reached terms in July, according to a U.S. administration official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Congress now has 90 session days to consider the proposal.
The agreement would permit American companies to export civilian nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and is expected to support construction of AP1000 nuclear reactors in the kingdom.
The planned reactor program would be worth tens of billions of dollars and could provide substantial business for Westinghouse, which is jointly owned by Canada-based Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management.
Despite sending the agreement to lawmakers, the Trump administration said the president has not changed his insistence that Saudi participation in the Abraham Accords is a prerequisite for the nuclear pact to move ahead.
“The president’s position has not changed that the agreement will only move forward if Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords,” the U.S. official said in an email.
The Abraham Accords are the U.S.-brokered normalization agreements established during Trump’s first term between Israel and several Arab and Muslim-majority countries.
The agreements reached in 2020 and 2021 involved the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
Trump pursued a similar nuclear cooperation arrangement with Saudi Arabia during his first administration and returned to the issue after coming back to office.
Only days after Washington and Riyadh reached the latest nuclear agreement in July, Trump made clear that normalization with Israel would be required before the pact could become effective.
It remains uncertain how submitting the agreement to Congress at this stage will advance that objective, particularly because Saudi Arabia has not withdrawn its condition for establishing relations with Israel.
Riyadh has said it will not recognize Israel without an irreversible pathway toward creation of a Palestinian state.
That position has become one of the central obstacles to further expansion of the Abraham Accords.
The Biden administration also attempted to negotiate a civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia and sought to connect it to normalization between Riyadh and Israel.
Before the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, diplomats believed Saudi Arabia had moved relatively close to establishing formal relations with Israel.
The outbreak of the war fundamentally altered those negotiations and made normalization substantially more difficult.
Saudi Arabia subsequently reinforced its demand for a credible and irreversible path toward Palestinian statehood before it would recognize Israel.
Trump’s decision to submit the nuclear agreement to Congress therefore moves the technical and legislative component of the arrangement forward even while its principal political condition remains unresolved.
Under the proposed 30-year agreement, Saudi Arabia would gain access to U.S. civilian nuclear technology, including the AP1000 reactor design.
The scale of the contemplated construction program would make the agreement commercially significant for the American nuclear industry and particularly for Westinghouse.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The administration has not explained in detail how congressional consideration of the agreement will affect negotiations with Riyadh or whether Saudi officials have indicated any new willingness to join the Abraham Accords.
For now, Trump’s position places the nuclear agreement and Saudi-Israeli normalization on the same track: Congress can review the proposed 30-year civil nuclear partnership, but the White House says the agreement will not ultimately proceed unless Saudi Arabia formally establishes relations with Israel.
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