American and Saudi flags stood on the stage at the Energy Department’s Washington headquarters on Wednesday afternoon. Energy Secretary Chris Wright sat at a table beside a large screen that linked him live to his Saudi counterpart in Riyadh. After months of delays, the two countries signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement.
By Thursday morning it looked shaky. President Donald Trump wrote on social media that the deal carried a new condition: Saudi Arabia had to join the Abraham Accords, the first-term initiative that led several Arab countries to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. He also denied that the agreement would let the Saudis enrich uranium.
What was signed
As described by the Israeli outlet Ynet, the agreement was supposed to let Saudi Arabia enrich uranium on its own territory once it met certain conditions. It also limited the authority of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors at suspected nuclear sites. Riyadh was not required to adopt the agency’s stricter inspection protocol, known as the Additional Protocol, so the administration asked Congress for a special waiver.
The two countries had reached a preliminary agreement last October, when Wright and his Saudi counterpart issued a joint statement. The waiver request then sat for months without Trump’s approval. Sources blamed the war with Iran and fears that Congress would reject the deal.
Nonproliferation specialists reacted negatively. They worried about enrichment on Saudi soil and about the missing Additional Protocol. Supporters countered that Saudi Arabia will pursue a nuclear program on its own terms anyway, and that the United States is better placed to shape safety standards than China or Russia.
Who knew what
Accounts of the reversal conflict. One source said Trump was already angry because Wright had not told him the deal would be announced. Sources told CNN his frustration grew after expert criticism and negative coverage in conservative media. Fox News, his preferred channel, ran critical reports. A Wall Street Journal editorial asked why the agreement was signed without Saudi-Israeli normalization, which Joe Biden had sought.
“This deal’s origins are in the Biden Administration, which held out nuclear cooperation as a reward if the Saudis were to join the Abraham Accords,” the Journal’s editorial board wrote. “Riyadh has resisted pressure to do so, but its reward now arrives from the Trump Administration anyway.”
White House officials blamed the Energy Department. According to one source, the White House had asked it not to launch the deal on Wednesday, and Wright went ahead anyway and gave interviews to Fox Business. Some advisers believed the agreement was not final because the required letters to Congress had not been sent.
The Energy Department rejected that. “This is fake news,” spokesman Ben Dietderich said. “The Department of Energy has closely coordinated negotiations and announcements of these deals with the White House and the State Department.”
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said the administration’s energy team had always been aligned: a civil nuclear deal depends on Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords. Two sources told CNN the negotiating team had not expected the condition.
Netanyahu and the Saudis
Many people close to the administration assumed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had stepped in. Two Israeli sources told CNN he hoped to influence the deal and wanted normalization, or at least real progress toward it, included. Asked whether Trump and Netanyahu had discussed it, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt answered, “Not to my knowledge.” She said Trump was repeating a long-held position.
Trump’s post went up at 7:52 a.m., minutes after a Fox News panel had discussed exactly this issue. On air, host Brian Kilmeade called the deal “a bit of a surprise,” and former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany asked why normalization had been left out.
The Saudis were caught off guard too. For them, a nuclear agreement without a demand for normalization was a major win. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said he cannot establish relations with Israel without a credible path to a Palestinian state. Leavitt said Trump did not speak to the crown prince around the time of his post, but that he had raised the issue with the Saudis in many past conversations.
