US President Donald Trump has reportedly approved allowing Saudi Arabia to build a civil nuclear program, potentially letting the kingdom develop its own enrichment facilities. The 30-year deal, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, could be worth tens of billions of dollars to US companies and shuts out Chinese and Russian firms from Saudi’s nuclear power ambitions.
Saudi Arabia has been lobbying for years for approval to enrich its domestic uranium deposits. The Biden administration tied any possible deal to the kingdom normalizing ties with Israel, and sought to impose restrictions on uranium enrichment and the reprocessing of spent fuel. The latest deal does not include such caveats, offering a major win for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Still, those terms are likely to spark fears of regional nuclear proliferation, and face opposition in the US Congress. Saudi Arabia has said in the past that it will pursue a nuclear weapon if Iran gets one, and the ability to enrich and reprocess offers it a pathway to do so.