US and Saudis to ink nuclear cooperation agreement; no mention of Israel normalization
Visiting Riyadh, American energy secretary says deal will help develop Saudi Arabia’s civilian nuclear capabilities
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) — The United States and Saudi Arabia will sign a preliminary agreement to cooperate over the kingdom’s ambitions to develop a civil nuclear industry, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told reporters in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday.
Wright, who had met with Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman earlier on Sunday, said Riyadh and Washington were on “a pathway” to reaching an agreement to work together to develop a Saudi civil nuclear program.
Wright, on his first official visit to the kingdom as part of a tour of energy-producing Gulf states, said further details over a memorandum detailing the energy cooperation between Riyadh and Washington would come later this year.
“For a US partnership and involvement in nuclear here, there will definitely be a 123 agreement … [there are] lots of ways to structure a deal that will accomplish both the Saudi objectives and the American objectives,” he said.
The so-called 123 agreement with Riyadh refers to Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954. Adherence to Section 123 is required to permit the US government and US companies to cooperate with entities in the kingdom developing civil nuclear capabilities.
Saudi authorities, however, have not agreed to the requirements under Section 123, Wright said. The provision specifies nine non-proliferation criteria a state must meet to keep it from using the technology to develop nuclear arms or transfer sensitive materials to others.
Progress on the discussions had previously been difficult because Saudi Arabia did not want to sign a deal that would rule out the possibility of enriching uranium or reprocessing spent fuel, both of which serve as potential paths to a bomb.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has long said that if Iran developed a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabia would follow suit. This stance has fueled deep concern among arms control advocates and some US lawmakers over a possible US-Saudi civil nuclear deal.
The Islamic Republic has been surging toward military nuclear capabilities, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Trump administration and Iran began negotiations on Saturday over the Iranian nuclear program, though it is still unclear whether significant progress was made.
Notably, Wright only mentioned discussions over the civil nuclear agreement with the Saudis. The previous administration of US President Joe Biden sought to include a civil nuclear agreement as part of a larger deal that would include US security guarantees for Saudi Arabia and the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Jerusalem.
But with a normalization agreement seen increasingly less likely under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government, which rejects Palestinian statehood, and as the war in Gaza drags on, Saudi officials in recent months have spoken about securing smaller bilateral deals with the US, ostensibly like the one Wright announced on Saturday.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is seeking to generate substantial renewable energy and reduce emissions under the crown prince’s Vision 2030 reform plan. At least some of this is expected to come from nuclear energy.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.