US to announce deal allowing Saudi Arabia a nuclear programme

The US and Saudi Arabia are expected to announce a deal that will allow the Gulf kingdom to develop a civilian nuclear programme.

An announcement is expected from US President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

The agreement could be worth billions of dollars to the US, whose companies could be involved in building a facility to produce enriched uranium, which can be used as fuel for power plants but also to make nuclear bombs.

Nuclear experts and former officials in Israel – the US’s top ally in the Middle East – have voiced concern that the plan could ultimately lead to Saudi Arabia being able to develop a nuclear weapon.

The White House has not responded to the BBC’s request for comment.

The deal would allow US companies to run nuclear power for the Saudis on Saudi soil, CBS reported citing a regional official familiar with the agreement. The corporations involved have not been disclosed and Congress would need to be consulted.

After undertaking a joint study with the US, Saudi Arabia may be allowed to enrich uranium on its soil to produce fuel at a US-built enrichment facility, instead of relying on imported fuel, according to media reports, external.

The deal would last 30 years and is estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported, external.

The enrichment provision would distinguish this agreement from another one that was struck by the US in 2009 with Saudi Arabia’s neighbour, the United Arab Emirates, under which the UAE does not produce its own fuel and accepts a host of other restrictions.

For that reason, the agreement is also expected to attract the concern of nuclear non-proliferation campaigners, whose ultimate aim is to prevent an increase in the number of nuclear weapons worldwide.

The nuclear issue has been at the centre of the months-long US-Israeli conflict with Iran. The two nations say one of the reasons they attacked Iran in February was to prevent the country from ever developing a nuclear weapon – something that Tehran denies planning to do.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told CBS News in 2018 that his own nation was not planning to acquire a nuclear weapon, but that “without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible”.