On Wednesday, July 22, 2026, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed a “peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement” and an accompanying safeguards agreement, clearing the way for Saudi Arabia to build a civilian nuclear program with American companies. Wright said the agreements “uphold the highest standards of nuclear safety and nonproliferation.”
Two U.S. officials told ABC News something different: the deal “leaves open the possibility that Saudi Arabia will enrich uranium domestically in the future.” Under its terms, a contracted corporation could oversee enrichment on Saudi soil after a lengthy joint study concluded it was commercially justified. The Biden-era framework it replaces had required any enrichment to happen at a U.S.-controlled facility.
Trump publicly contradicted his own officials, posting, “There will be no enrichment of material!”
The timing is the problem. The United States is in its fifth month of a war with Iran fought over that country's enrichment program, a war that has killed U.S. service members, cost tens of billions of dollars, and been justified from the podium as necessary to stop a nuclear weapon. The same administration signed an agreement that contemplates enrichment on the soil of another Gulf monarchy (see Trump Launches Regime Change War in Iran After Years of Promising to 'End the Cycle of Regime Change' and The Pentagon Is Hiding Iran War Casualties: Official Count Says 303 Wounded, but the Actual Total May Exceed 750).
The next day, Trump attached a condition nobody had negotiated. In a Truth Social post he declared the deal “totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords,” a requirement that was not mentioned when Wright announced the agreement and was not part of the framework negotiated during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Washington visit the previous fall. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed it: the deal “is contingent on this condition as far as the president is concerned.” She also acknowledged Trump had not yet spoken with the Crown Prince about the new condition.
Netanyahu's office welcomed Saudi participation as “an historic leap forward for peace.” The agreement still requires congressional review under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. Sen. Ed Markey issued a statement accusing Trump of caving to the Saudis on nuclear nonproliferation.
Update (September 21, 2026): part of the agreement is secret. On September 16, fourteen senators, including Republicans Rand Paul and John Kennedy, wrote to Secretary of State Rubio and Energy Secretary Wright asking the administration to declassify two side letters that accompany the nuclear cooperation agreement sent to Congress on August 27. “We are aware of no precedent for classifying and withholding the side letters, particularly when the stated purpose is peaceful nuclear cooperation,” they wrote. That there is no precedent is the senators' statement, not an independently established fact. The same day, Sens. Markey, Sanders and Merkley introduced S.J.Res. 216 to block a separate $5 billion sale of bombs to the kingdom (see The Administration Notifies Congress of a Possible $5 Billion Sale of 10,000 Bombs to Saudi Arabia During the Iran War).