U.S. President Donald Trump has formally sent Congress a proposed civil nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, making clear that the deal will only proceed if the kingdom takes steps to normalize relations with Israel, a White House official said Tuesday.
The agreement, finalized in July, would permit American companies to export civilian nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, according to an unnamed U.S. official who spoke with *Reuters*.
A request for comment from the Saudi Embassy in Washington went unanswered on Tuesday.
How Trump expects this move will help push Saudi Arabia toward normalization remains uncertain. Congress has 90 session days to review the proposal.
“The president’s position remains unchanged: this agreement will only move forward if Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords,” the official said via email, referencing the U.S.-brokered pacts signed by Israel and several Arab nations.
The Abraham Accords were signed in 2020 and 2021 between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
Following the signing of the nuclear deal in July, Trump—who tried to broker a similar agreement during his first term—publicly stated that normalization with Israel would be a prerequisite for the deal to take effect.
Prior to this, former President Joe Biden had also supported a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, though he too sought to link it to broader regional normalization. In 2023, some officials believed Riyadh was nearing a breakthrough with Israel, but the outbreak of conflict in Gaza in October of that year shifted the dynamics significantly.
Saudi Arabia has maintained that it will not recognize Israel without a credible, irreversible path to a Palestinian state.
The 30-year agreement outlines plans to build AP1000 nuclear reactors, a project valued at tens of billions of dollars and expected to benefit Westinghouse, which is co-owned by Canada-based Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management.