Washington: US President Donald Trump has sent a proposed civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia to Congress, but the pact will not take effect unless Riyadh agrees to normalise relations with Israel, a US administration official said.

The agreement, concluded in July, would allow American companies to supply civilian nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. The administration formally submitted it to Congress on Monday, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The president’s position has not changed that the agreement will only move forward if Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords,” the official said in an email.

The Abraham Accords, brokered by the United States during Trump’s first term, established diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan in 2020 and 2021.

Trump reiterated in July that Saudi-Israeli normalisation would be a prerequisite for the nuclear agreement to take effect. The president had pursued a similar nuclear arrangement with Riyadh during his first term.

Former President Joe Biden also sought a US-Saudi nuclear agreement and hoped to make it part of a broader deal that would include Saudi recognition of Israel. Negotiations appeared to be gaining momentum in 2023, but Israel’s war in Gaza following the Hamas-led October 2023 attack disrupted those efforts.

Saudi Arabia has since maintained that it would not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without an irreversible pathway toward the creation of a Palestinian state.

Congress to review agreement

The 30-year nuclear cooperation agreement could pave the way for the construction of AP1000 nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia, a project potentially worth tens of billions of dollars.

The deal could also provide a major boost to Westinghouse, the US nuclear company jointly owned by Canada-based Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management.

The agreement was sent to congressional leaders and is expected to be referred to committees on Wednesday, according to two congressional sources.

Congress will have 90 session days to review the agreement. If lawmakers do not block it within that period, the pact will enter into force. Should Congress reject it, Trump could veto the disapproval, meaning lawmakers would need a two-thirds majority to override him.

Concerns over nuclear proliferation

The agreement has already drawn criticism from some Democratic lawmakers and nuclear nonproliferation advocates because it does not explicitly prevent Saudi Arabia from enriching uranium or reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.

Both activities can potentially provide pathways toward developing nuclear weapons.

The United Arab Emirates accepted restrictions on enrichment and reprocessing — often described as the “gold standard” for US civilian nuclear agreements — when it signed its nuclear cooperation deal with Washington in 2009.

The Trump administration, however, maintains that the Saudi agreement contains the nonproliferation safeguards required under US law.

Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, said the congressional review process could ultimately allow the nuclear agreement to move forward even if Saudi Arabia does not normalise relations with Israel or accept stricter restrictions on enrichment.

“If you’re serious about no enrichment and recognition of Israel,” Sokolski said, the current arrangement is “hardly ideal.”