Trump says US-Saudi nuclear deal hinges on Riyadh joining Abraham Accords

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said a civil nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia will only go ahead if the kingdom joins the Abraham Accords, tying the arrangement to Riyadh normalising relations with Israel.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said the agreement would be limited to peaceful purposes and would not involve uranium enrichment. He wrote:

The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!).. 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.

He added in a separate remark in the same post:

The United States is not opposed to Civil (Non-Enriched) Nuclear Facilities.

The United States and Saudi Arabia had reached an agreement on civil nuclear power that would allow the kingdom to enrich uranium and build nuclear reactors using US technology, without the snap UN inspections Washington had previously demanded from Iran.

Saudi Arabia has long maintained that it will not join the Abraham Accords unless there is an agreed roadmap toward Palestinian statehood. The Abraham Accords refer to the normalisation agreements between Israel and several Arab states.