President Trump says the nuclear deal being advanced with Riyadh will only be conditioned on Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords with Israel.By David Rosenberg, World Israel NewsPresident Donald Trump said Thursday that a proposed US-Saudi civil nuclear agreement would only receive final approval if Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords and would not permit the kingdom to enrich nuclear material.Trump’s announcement added two major conditions that were absent from the Energy Department’s initial description of the agreement and appeared to sharply narrow the terms reported by several news organizations a day earlier.“The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!) being made between the United States Department of Energy and Saudi Arabia, which 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. The United States is not opposed to Civil (Non-Enriched) Nuclear Facilities,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.The post directly tied one of Saudi Arabia’s most important strategic objectives, a US-supported nuclear energy industry, to normalization with Israel.The Abraham Accords, brokered during Trump’s first term, established or expanded diplomatic relations between Israel and several Muslim-majority countries. Trump has repeatedly pushed Saudi Arabia to join the framework, a step that would represent a far more consequential breakthrough than the original agreements due to the kingdom’s regional influence and its status as the custodian of Islam’s two holiest sites.Saudi Arabia has previously said it would not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state. Trump’s statement did not say whether Riyadh had accepted the normalization condition or whether negotiations were continuing.The Energy Department announced Wednesday that Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman had signed a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement, commonly known as a Section 123 agreement, together with a separate bilateral safeguards agreement.The department described the proposed partnership as a decades-long, multibillion-dollar arrangement that would give American companies access to Saudi Arabia’s planned nuclear energy program while supporting US industry and employment.“These agreements uphold the highest standards of nuclear safety and nonproliferation,” Wright said when announcing the signing.The department’s statement did not publicly disclose whether Saudi Arabia would be allowed to enrich uranium or reprocess spent nuclear fuel. It also did not mention Saudi recognition of Israel or participation in the Abraham Accords as a condition of the agreement.Reports by multiple outlets had said the agreement could permit Saudi Arabia to develop uranium enrichment capabilities following a joint feasibility study. Those reports prompted criticism from Israeli political leaders, members of Congress and nuclear nonproliferation specialists who warned that domestic enrichment could eventually provide Riyadh with technology relevant to producing weapons-grade material.Trump’s Thursday declaration that “there will be no enrichment of material” appeared to reject that possibility. It was not immediately clear whether the president was announcing a last-minute change to the signed agreement, correcting previous accounts of its contents or imposing additional requirements before the pact can take effect.The UAE agreed to permanently renounce domestic uranium enrichment and the reprocessing of spent fuel when it concluded its own nuclear cooperation agreement with Washington. That restriction became known as the “gold standard” for US nuclear agreements because it removes two potential routes toward producing material for nuclear weapons.Saudi leaders had previously resisted accepting the same restrictions, arguing that the kingdom should be permitted to use its domestic uranium resources. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also said Saudi Arabia would seek a nuclear weapon if Iran obtained one, intensifying concerns over any agreement that could provide Riyadh with sensitive fuel-cycle technology.Iran, unlike the UAE, has operated uranium enrichment facilities while insisting that its nuclear activities serve peaceful purposes. Enrichment can produce fuel for civilian reactors at low levels but can also be used to create weapons-grade uranium when taken to substantially higher concentrations.The US-Saudi agreement must now be transmitted to Congress for a statutory review period. Lawmakers can attempt to block it through a joint resolution of disapproval, although overcoming a presidential veto would require two-thirds majorities in both chambers.The post Trump conditions Saudi nuclear deal on normalization with Israel appeared first on World Israel News.