Trump sends Saudi nuclear deal to Congress but says Riyadh must recognize Israel

President Donald Trump ​has sent Congress a proposed agreement with ‌Saudi ​Arabia on civil nuclear energy while insisting the pact will only be approved if the kingdom normalizes relations with Israel, a U.S. administration official ‌told Reuters on Tuesday. The agreement, which was reached in July and would allow U.S. companies to export civilian nuclear technology to the kingdom, was sent to Congress on Monday, according to the U.S. official, ‌who declined to be identified.

The Saudi embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request ‌for comment. It was not clear how Trump expects sending the nuclear deal to Congress, which has 90 session days to consider it, will advance his objectives.

"The president's position has not changed that the agreement will only move forward if ⁠Saudi Arabia ​joins the Abraham Accords," the ⁠U.S. official said in an email, referring to U.S.-brokered agreements between Israel and Arab and Muslim-majority nations to normalize relations. Those ⁠accords, reached in 2020 and 2021, were between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

Days after agreeing ​to the Saudi nuclear deal in July, Trump, who worked on a similar pact during ⁠his first term, set normalization as a condition for it to go into effect. Former President Joe Biden also pushed ⁠for ​a nuclear deal and wanted to tie it to the accords. Diplomats thought Riyadh was close to normalizing relations with Israel in 2023, but the start of Israel's war on Gaza in ⁠October 2023 changed the landscape.

Saudi Arabia has demanded an irreversible path to a Palestinian state before recognizing ⁠Israel. The 30-year nuclear deal ⁠calls for the construction of AP1000 reactors, a project worth tens of billions of dollars that would benefit Westinghouse, jointly owned by Canada-based Cameco and Brookfield ‌Asset Management.