US, Saudi Arabia set to sign nuclear agreement: What to know

The Trump administration is expected to sign an agreement with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday that could allow the kingdom to produce its own enriched uranium for its civilian nuclear program.

What happened: US President Donald Trump formally approved the agreement with Saudi Arabia last week, the Wall Street Journal first reported late on Tuesday.

Citing US officials, the report said the agreement, which is worth tens of billions of dollars, is expected to last 30 years. During that period, US companies would build a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia if a joint study determined such a step is warranted. The move would ensure US oversight to prevent the use of nuclear enrichment for military purposes while eliminating foreign competition.

“The agreement could help revitalize the US nuclear industry, strengthen US-Saudi ties and deny Russia and China a strategically important role in the Saudi nuclear program,” Robert Einhorn, a former senior State Department official who advised both Republican and Democratic administrations on nonproliferation issues, was quoted as saying in the report.

According to the paper, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright is expected to sign it on Wednesday.

Wright met in Saudi Arabia with Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman in April 2025 and they signed a preliminary agreement to cooperate over the kingdom’s plans to develop a civil nuclear industry.

Why it matters: During Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s trip to Washington in November 2025, the two countries inked a series of agreements, including a Joint Declaration on the Completion of Negotiations on Civil Nuclear Energy Cooperation, which according to a White House readout would provide “the legal foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar nuclear energy partnership with the kingdom.”

The agreement has been under discussion for years. Saudi Arabia had conditioned normalization with Israel under the US-brokered Abraham Accords on a mutual US-Saudi agreement to secure US support for its civil nuclear program.

Controversy: The deal, which is expected to be submitted to Congress in the coming days under a document known as the 123 Agreement, is likely to face pushback from some lawmakers who reject the spread of nuclear technology in the Middle East.

A 123 Agreement is a civil nuclear cooperation agreement under Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954, which allows the US to transfer nuclear technology, equipment, fuel and expertise to another country for peaceful nuclear energy purposes.

The United Arab Emirates signed a 123 Agreement with the US back in 2009 to build its Barakah nuclear power plant, agreeing to the so-called gold standard, under which a country pledges not to enrich uranium domestically or reprocess spent nuclear fuel, both of which are potential pathways to nuclear weapons.

However, according to Reuters, the US-Saudi deal omits the gold standard, raising concerns that it could eventually shift its civilian nuclear program to develop nuclear weapons.

Saudi Arabia, which currently has no nuclear plants, is a member state of the International Atomic and Energy Agency. But the deal with the US is also not expected to include the IAEA’s Additional Protocol, which provides the UN agency broad oversight over Saudi Arabia’s nuclear activities.

The New York Times cited two US officials as saying that Trump approved the deal with Saudi Arabia and agreed to a provision that may limit inspections to sites in the kingdom. 

Prince Mohammed has repeatedly said over the years that Saudi Arabia would pursue its own nuclear weapon if regional rival Iran acquired one. In an interview with Fox News back in 2023, the Saudi prince said that if Iran developed a nuclear weapon, his country would “have to get one, for security reasons, for balancing power.”

Know more: The agreement comes as the US escalates its strikes against Iran, vowing to eliminate Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon.

Tehran launched its nuclear program in the 1970s. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, however, the program has come under heightened scrutiny from the UN, the US and their partners, despite Iran’s repeated assurances that its enrichment is only for civilian purposes.