US President Donald Trump has submitted to Congress an agreement with Saudi Arabia on a civilian nuclear programme, but the pact will only take effect if the kingdom agrees to establish official ties with Israel.
The document was sent to Congress by the Department of Energy under the 1954 Atomic Energy Act, a Trump administration official told The National.
“The President’s position has not changed, that the agreement will only move forward if Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords,” the official said.
The agreement was submitted to Congress on Monday, Reuters reported. The pact, reached in July, would allow US companies to export civilian nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and deepen the US-Saudi partnership.
Days after the agreement was reached, Mr Trump said Saudi-Israeli normalisation would be a condition for the nuclear pact to take effect, marking a shift from the administration’s previous position that the two deals could proceed on separate tracks.
Negotiated during Mr Trump's first term, the 2020 Abraham Accords saw the UAE and Bahrain sign agreements establishing ties with Israel. Morocco joined later, as did Sudan, although its formal signing was delayed due to its domestic crisis.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat, sought to bring Saudi Arabia into the accords.
Riyadh, however, has long said that progress towards normalisation would depend on a credible path towards the establishment of a Palestinian state.
A potential Saudi-Israeli agreement appeared to be close in 2023 before talks stalled after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.
Israel’s government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has expressed interest in establishing relations with Saudi Arabia but remains opposed to Palestinian statehood.
Congress has 90 legislative days to review the nuclear agreement. If members do not reject it within that period, the pact will take effect.
If Congress rejects the agreement, Mr Trump could veto the resolution. Congress could override a veto, but that would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers.
Mr Trump’s Republican Party holds narrow majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate.
