According to reports on July 23, President Trump made a bold statement that the civilian nuclear cooperation deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is far from a done deal. He basically said it all comes down to one thing: whether Saudi Arabia is willing to make peace with Israel. That’s a pretty cold shower for what his administration had just called a “milestone” agreement the day before.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: “This deal will eventually get approved, but only if Saudi agrees to join the widely recognized and highly successful Abraham Accords.” For those who don’t remember, the Abraham Accords were a big push during his first term to get Arab nations to officially recognize Israel and normalize ties.
He also clarified that the U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal is strictly for peaceful, non-military purposes—no uranium enrichment involved. “We’re not against building purely civilian nuclear facilities that don’t involve enriching uranium,” he added, comparing it to similar projects in Iran and the UAE.
Here’s where it gets messy: this sudden condition from Trump throws a huge wrench into the whole process. Saudi Arabia has been crystal clear—they won’t normalize relations with Israel unless Israel agrees to let Palestine become an independent state. And Israel’s government has flat-out said that’s not happening.
Just the day before, on July 22, the U.S. Energy Department announced they’d signed a nuclear cooperation deal and a companion safeguards agreement with Saudi Arabia. This deal is set to last 30 years, reportedly worth tens of billions of dollars, and involves American companies building civilian nuclear projects in Saudi territory.
Interestingly, the full text of this nuclear deal hasn’t been released to the public yet. And when the Energy Department announced it, their official statement didn’t mention Israel or the Abraham Accords at all. Not a single word.
All this is happening while the Trump administration is putting pressure on Iran to limit its nuclear program and hand over its enriched uranium. It’s quite a balancing act.
Iran and Saudi Arabia have been longtime rivals in the Middle East. Critics are pointing out the hypocrisy: the U.S. is demanding strict nuclear limits from Iran on one hand, while helping Saudi Arabia build up its own civilian nuclear program on the other.
The deal is headed to Congress in the coming days for review, and it’s expected to spark some heated debates among lawmakers who are worried about nuclear proliferation in the region. But here’s the thing—blocking it won’t be easy. To overturn a presidential decision, Congress would need a joint resolution with a two-thirds majority vote. That’s a tall order.