President Donald Trump has placed a new condition on a nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia a day after formally approving it, saying the country now must join the Abraham Accords.
Trump wrote in a post on social media Thursday that the deal, which has already been signed, “will be approved,” but added, that it “is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords.”
The president also emphasized in the post that there would be “no enrichment” even though the agreement could lead to the country enriching its own fuel for civilian reactors.
The comments come even after Energy Secretary Chris Wright and his Saudi counterpart on Wednesday signed the agreement, which provides Saudi Arabia with a civilian nuclear program. The deal had sparked criticism from Israeli officials and is expected to draw scrutiny on Capitol Hill.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt doubled down on Trump’s comments Thursday, saying the president “is always the final dealmaker” and that the agreement is “off” unless Saudi Arabia normalizes diplomatic relations with Israel.
She said Trump would continue conversations with Saudi leaders on normalization, but hadn’t spoken to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — who has stated plainly that he will not normalize relations with Israel unless there is a clear pathway toward a Palestinian state — since he unveiled the new condition.
“The president just put out this statement a few hours ago. I don’t believe he’s had a call with MBS in the hours since. However, this is something that he has raised in previous conversations and has also said many times in the past,” Leavitt said.
Trump’s announcement caught the administration’s nuclear negotiating team off-guard, according to two sources briefed on the matter.
CNN previously reported that as part of the deal, before uranium enrichment could begin, a joint US-Saudi team would explore whether it is warranted and commercially viable, and Americans would build the facility without transferring the sensitive technology to Saudi Arabia.
The agreement also includes limits on what inspections might be carried out on the Saudi program, according to US officials and sources.
The kingdom is notably not required to sign a standard agreement called the Additional Protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency, like the United Arab Emirates did in 2009 when it signed a “gold standard” nuclear cooperation deal with the US, an official said.
Saudi Arabia has previously been resistant to efforts to join the Abraham Accords, an effort started during Trump’s first term and expanded during his second to establish diplomatic ties between Israel and its neighbors in the Middle East.
Diplomatic normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel has historically been a condition of Washington agreeing to nuclear cooperation with Riyadh, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. The condition stood as recently as the Biden administration, said the source, who requested anonymity to discuss diplomatic discussions.
But that changed when Israel’s response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack made normalization “untenable” for the Saudis, the source said. That led Biden-era negotiators to seek “less-for-less” from the prospective nuclear deal.
It is unclear what impact Trump’s social media missive will have on the signed agreement.
CNN has reached out to the Saudi embassy for comment and to the White House about whether the deal is paused until Saudi Arabia signs on to the Abraham Accords.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, meanwhile, applauded Trump’s latest post. “As President Trump has said, Saudi Arabia’s joining of the Abraham Accords would be an historic leap forward for peace in the Middle East.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
Davis Winkie’s work at CNN is supported by a partnership between Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners (JFP). CNN retains full editorial control of the reporting.
