Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia raises the prospect of US nuclear cooperation with the kingdom

WASHINGTON AP Saudi Arabia wants U S help progressing its own civil nuclear venture and the Trump administration says it is very excited at the prospect U S -Saudi cooperation in building reactors for nuclear power plants in the kingdom could shut the Chinese and Russians out of what could be a high-dollar partnership for the American nuclear industry Despite that eagerness there are obstacles including fears that helping the Saudis fulfill their long-standing desire to enrich their own uranium as part of that partnership would open new rounds of nuclear proliferation and competition Saudi Arabia s pursuit of a nuclear agreement is likely to play into the ever-evolving bargaining on regional shield issues involving the U S Iran and Israel This coming week Republican President Donald Trump will make his first trip to Saudi Arabia of his second term Here s a look at key issues involved in the Saudi request The US is eager to show it s working toward Saudi Arabia s nuclear ambitions Vigor Secretary Chris Wright who traveled to Saudi Arabia before Trump s trip revealed the world can expect to see meaningful developments this year on helping the kingdom build a commercial nuclear power industry Wright commented the U S was very excited about it That does not necessarily mean there will be any big breakthroughs on Trump s trip disclosed Jon Alterman head of the Mideast project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington Something smaller that still signals to the Saudis and the Iranians with whom Trump is pushing for an agreement limiting Tehran s nuclear operation that Washington is interested in cooperating on Saudi efforts could be the U S aim for now There would be a lot of avenues to show progress toward an agreement on a Saudi nuclear initiative without fully committing to a partnership on it Alterman reported Solid reasons for a Saudi civilian nuclear power project Saudi Arabia is a global oil giant but it is also largely a desert Running all those air conditioners uses a lot of petroleum that the kingdom would rather be exporting The Saudis own oil consumption burns up one-third of what the country produces Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also is pushing to build up Saudi Arabia s mining and processing of its own minerals That includes Saudi reserves of uranium a fuel for nuclear reactors For the Trump administration any deal with Iran that lets Tehran keep its own nuclear activity or continue its own enrichment could increase Saudi pressure for the same That s even though Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have toned down their enmity toward Iran in new years and are supporting the U S efforts to limit Iran s nuclear scheme peacefully For the U S any technological help it gives the Saudis as they move toward building nuclear reactors would be a boon for American companies Internationally there is endorsement for U S efforts to strike a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia given that the Saudis could turn to the Chinese and Russians for help advancing a nuclear industry with fewer safeguards The feeling is if the U S doesn t provide it then someone else will commented Hasan Alhasan a senior fellow in Bahrain for the International Institute for Strategic Studies Possibility that nuclear weapons are a Saudi goal Without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb we would follow suit as soon as workable Prince Mohammed disclosed in at a time of higher tension between Arab states and Iran Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states stress better relations and diplomacy with Iran now But Prince Mohammed s comments and other Saudi bureaucrats stated similar have left open the possibility that nuclear weapons are a strategic goal of the Saudis Saudi Arabia s desire to enrich its own uranium The Saudis long have pushed for the U S to build a uranium enrichment facility in the kingdom as part of any nuclear cooperation between the two countries That facility could produce low-enriched uranium for civilian nuclear reactors But without enough controls it could also churn out highly enriched uranium for nuclear bombs Trump administration administrators cite the Saudis desire to make use of their country s uranium deposits The kingdom has spent tens of millions of dollars with Chinese assistance to find and develop those deposits But the uranium ore that it has identified so far would be severely uneconomic to develop the intergovernmental Nuclear Vigor Agency says It has been decades since there has been any state-sanctioned transfer of that kind of machinery to a nonnuclear-weapon state although a Pakistani-based black-market grid provided enrichment innovation to Iran North Korea Libya and possibly others about years ago Robert Einhorn noted for the Brookings Institute last year Allowing Saudi Arabia or any other additional country to host an enrichment facility would reverse long-standing U S initiative It could spur more nuclear proliferation among U S allies and rivals Einhorn wrote The effect on regional measure Under Democratic President Joe Biden the U S and Saudi Arabia had looked at nuclear cooperation as just one part of broader negotiations that also involved Saudi desires for U S arms and shield guarantees and for a satisfactory long-term deal on behalf of Palestinians The U S meanwhile had tied the cooperation to Saudi Arabia agreeing to normalize relations with Israel The Trump administration seems to have unpacked particular of that big bundle But the administration may still see holding off on any major civil nuclear agreement as leverage in brokering what would be historic diplomatic relations between the kingdom and Israel Alterman noted Getting to that agreement part of what s known as the Abraham Accords between Arab states and Israel has been a chief goal for Trump After Wright s trip particular Israelis expressed their opposition to allowing Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium and Iran and Saudi Arabia are both attentively watching the other s talks with the U S on their nuclear issues Source