Trump ties US-Saudi nuclear deal to Riyadh joining Abraham Accords

US President Donald Trump has said a landmark civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia will only move forward if Riyadh joins the Abraham Accords and normalises relations with Israel, adding a new political condition to a deal already drawing close attention in Washington and the Middle East. In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said the proposed arrangement would apply only to peaceful nuclear use, describing it as similar to civilian programmes already in place in countries such as Iran and the United Arab Emirates. He said the deal would be approved, but only if Saudi Arabia joins what he called the “very respected and successful Abraham Accords.” The Abraham Accords are the US-brokered agreements signed during Trump’s first term in 2020 that established diplomatic ties between Israel and several Arab states. While the accords were seen in Washington as a major foreign policy breakthrough, they remain politically sensitive across much of the region because they did not resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Trump’s comments come at a time when nuclear policy, regional security and Middle East diplomacy remain tightly linked. Saudi Arabia has long been interested in civilian nuclear capabilities, but any such programme has been watched closely because of broader concerns about enrichment, safeguards and the potential dual-use nature of nuclear technology. According to the US Energy Department, two agreements were signed by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman: one on peaceful nuclear cooperation and another on bilateral safeguards. The department said the agreements create a legal basis for a long-term partnership and support non-proliferation goals, although the text was not immediately made public. That lack of detail leaves several important questions open. It is not yet clear how far the Saudi programme would be allowed to go, what limits would apply to uranium enrichment, or what specific commitments the two sides have accepted behind closed doors. A provision mentioned in reporting around the deal could potentially involve US companies building a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia, but the public terms have not yet been released. The issue is particularly significant because Washington’s nuclear negotiations and regional diplomacy have increasingly overlapped with tensions involving Iran. Trump referred to civilian facilities in countries such as Iran and the UAE, underscoring how the administration is framing the Saudi talks in the context of broader nuclear competition and non-proliferation concerns. For Saudi Arabia, the nuclear question is not just about energy. It also touches on strategic autonomy, economic diversification and its position in a changing regional order. For Israel, any Saudi normalisation would be a major diplomatic prize. For the United States, tying the two issues together could give Washington leverage — but it could also make a nuclear agreement much harder to conclude. For now, the clearest takeaway is that the White House is treating the Saudi nuclear file and the Abraham Accords as parts of the same negotiation track. Whether Riyadh is willing to accept that linkage remains uncertain, especially given the continuing regional backlash to normalisation without progress on Palestinian rights and statehood concerns. The deal’s final shape, and whether it can pass without major revisions, will likely depend on both technical nuclear safeguards and the far more difficult politics of the Israeli-Arab peace agenda.

Source: Dawn Home - https://www.dawn.com/news/2017738/trump-says-us-saudi-nuclear-deal-subject-to-riyadh-joining-abraham-accords