Trump rules out enrichment in Saudi nuclear deal, calls for kingdom to join Abraham Accords

A day after signing a civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, President Donald Trump added a new condition to the pact, calling on the kingdom to join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel. 

The president also said that Saudi Arabia would not be able to enrich uranium as a part of the deal, clarifying the terms after reports indicated that the arrangement left the door open for the Saudis to eventually enrich the nuclear fuel. 

"The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!) being made between the United States Department of Energy and Saudi Arabia, which pertains only to non-military use such as the ones that Iran and UAE (and others) already have, will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords," Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday. 

Just the News previously reported on the terms of the deal, which analysts warned could invite nuclear proliferation in the Middle East without the most stringent safeguards. In recent years, a bipartisan array of lawmakers has raised concerns about permitting American companies to share nuclear know-how with Saudi Arabia or helping it create a civilian nuclear industry without sufficient monitoring. 

The deal reportedly does not include the "gold standard," a promise from Saudi Arabia that it will not enrich uranium at home or reprocess the spent fuel from nuclear reactors. According to the reports, Saudi Arabia rejected such terms. 

Saudi Arabia also reportedly rejected the “Additional Protocol,” which would allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors broad access to a country’s nuclear sites and the ability to carry out snap inspections at an undisclosed location. Trump administration officials said that the U.S. negotiated an independent monitoring regime that would prevent proliferation.

The Biden administration originally conditioned the deal for nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia on the kingdom normalizing relations with Israel. Progress on that front was interrupted after Hamas’ October 2023 attack against Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. With his announcement on Thursday, President Trump reimposed that same condition.