Trump Sends Saudi Nuclear Deal to Congress — Uranium Enrichment on Saudi Soil, While Bombing Iran for the Same Thing

Trump sent the US-Saudi civil nuclear cooperation agreement — a so-called 123 Agreement — to Congress on August 25, the WSJ reported. Under US law, the agreement enters into force unless Congress blocks it within the statutory review period through a joint resolution of disapproval.

The two governments signed the agreement last month. Congressional submission is the final procedural step before it becomes operative.

What the Agreement Allows

The 123 Agreement provides the legal framework for building nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia. The controversial part is what else it opens: a path to uranium enrichment on Saudi territory.

If the agreement takes effect, the two countries would conduct a two-year commercial feasibility study, after which construction of a uranium enrichment facility inside Saudi Arabia could proceed — with US companies eligible to participate in building it.

For decades, US non-proliferation policy has centered on the "gold standard" — 123 Agreements that require partner countries to forswear enrichment and reprocessing on their own soil (the UAE accepted this condition in 2009). The Saudi agreement breaks from that standard: it does not prohibit enrichment, it creates a study-then-build path toward it. Saudi Arabia has also not signed the IAEA Additional Protocol, the enhanced inspection regime that gives international inspectors broader access. An enrichment-capable Saudi Arabia without Additional Protocol safeguards is precisely the configuration non-proliferation policy was designed to prevent.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a frequent critic of proliferation risk, urged Congress to oppose the deal: "It would weaken decades of US non-proliferation policy that has prevented the spread of sensitive nuclear fuel-making technology."

The Iran Double Standard

The critique writes itself. The US went to war with Iran — strikes, a naval blockade of Hormuz, an ongoing economic isolation campaign — over Tehran's uranium enrichment program. Trump said last week he would fight that war "100 times over."

The same administration is now submitting to Congress an agreement that opens an enrichment path for Saudi Arabia, Iran's chief regional rival, which has not accepted the IAEA's strongest inspection regime.

The strategic logic is not hidden: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said publicly that if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabia will follow. The enrichment option in the 123 Agreement is partly a hedge — and partly a reward for alignment with US regional architecture. But as precedent, it tells every US partner that enrichment restrictions are negotiable for those on good terms with Washington. That is the opposite of how non-proliferation norms hold.

Why Congress Probably Can't Stop It

Blocking a 123 Agreement requires a joint resolution of disapproval passing both chambers — and surviving a presidential veto, which requires two-thirds majorities. No agreement submitted under this process has ever been blocked this way.

Congressional opposition can slow, condition, and politically complicate the deal. It almost certainly cannot kill it.

The Real Gate: Israel

The variable that actually decides whether the agreement moves from paper to concrete is Saudi-Israel normalization.

Trump has conditioned implementation on Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords — normalizing relations with Israel. A US administration official confirmed the position is unchanged: no Abraham Accords accession, no nuclear cooperation.

This resurrects the framework discussed under the Biden administration — a mutual defense treaty and nuclear agreement in exchange for Israeli normalization — that collapsed after the Gaza war began in October 2023. Saudi Arabia suspended normalization talks then and has not formally resumed them.