The United States and Saudi Arabia signed a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement on July 22 in Washington aimed solely at peaceful uses, excluding uranium enrichment and military applications [1, 2, 3]. The agreement includes a bilateral safeguards arrangement designed to prevent nuclear proliferation [1, 2, 3]. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman formalized the deal in the US capital [1, 2, 3].
US President Donald Trump stated publicly on July 23 that approval of the nuclear deal is fully conditional on Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel by joining the Abraham Accords. He said, "The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!)... will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords" [4, 1, 3]. Trump reiterated the deal covers only non-military uses similar to existing agreements the US holds with Iran and the UAE.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the agreement will require Congressional approval and must include safeguards to ensure it cannot be weaponized. Rubio said, "Any 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." He added, "Any deal... will have to go through a Congressional review process... we will need to have those safeguards in place" [2, 3].
However, Saudi Arabia has maintained it will not normalize ties with Israel without a "time-bound and irreversible path" to establish a Palestinian state [1]. The signed agreement’s text does not explicitly mention normalization with Israel; the linkage remains a political condition expressed by President Trump but not codified in the deal itself [4, 1, 3].
Following the July 22 signing, US officials plan to move forward with Congressional review to assess the deal’s safeguards and strategic implications [2, 3]. This step will determine whether the peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement gains final US approval.
