{"id":218000,"date":"2026-07-23T10:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T10:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-signs-landmark-nuclear-agreement-with-saudi-arabia-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T10:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T10:35:08","slug":"u-s-signs-landmark-nuclear-agreement-with-saudi-arabia-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-signs-landmark-nuclear-agreement-with-saudi-arabia-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. signs landmark nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
The U.S. signed a landmark nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the Energy Department announced on X<\/a>.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
\u201cU.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Saudi Minister of Energy His Royal Highness (HRH) Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement, commonly known as a 123 agreement, alongside an accompanying bilateral safeguards agreement,\u201d the announcement read. \u201cTogether, these two agreements lay the legal foundation for a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership that advances several priority economic and strategic objectives, including nuclear nonproliferation.\u201d
In the announcement, Wright added: \u201cRest assured, these agreements uphold the highest standards of nuclear safety and nonproliferation, while relying on the world\u2019s best nuclear technology and scientists, designed right here in the United States.\u201d
Earlier, a senior administration official told NBC News that President Donald Trump<\/a> had approved the deal.
The U.S. will support creating a nuclear power program and American companies will build the program in the kingdom under the agreement, said the official, who was granted anonymity to speak about the deal before its official announcement.
The deal is not expected to require the most rigorous level of U.N. inspections or include a ban on uranium enrichment or reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, according to three people familiar with the agreement.
The pact would allow U.S. companies to build a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia pending a joint U.S.-Saudi study examining whether such a step would be feasible, the people said. The text of the deal has not been released, and the administration has not publicly outlined its details.
The Wall Street Journal first reported <\/a>news of the agreement.
Congress will be required to vote on the agreement but would need a veto-proof majority to actually block it, which could pave the way for the kingdom to pursue its own uranium enrichment and would be likely to raise fears of nuclear proliferation.
Asked ahead of the announcement about those concerns and reports of an expected deal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> said Wednesday that the U.S. would not \u201creach any agreement with any country in the world that leads to the risk of proliferation.\u201d
The agreement comes as the war against Iran<\/a> that the U.S. and Israel launched in late February goes on. Trump has insisted that Tehran should not be able to develop a nuclear weapon, even as the Islamic Republic consistently denies it plans to do so.
An agreement to normalize ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia had been a U.S. requirement for any deal allowing the kingdom to enrich uranium, but Saudi leaders insisted that would not be possible without meaningful progress toward a Palestinian state.
However, Wright discussed building the country\u2019s commercial nuclear power industry with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, on a visit to the kingdom last year, shortly before Trump traveled there himself in May 2025.
Any deal without appropriate guardrails would be \u201cconcerning from a proliferation perspective,\u201d said Darya Dolzikova\u200b, a senior research fellow with the proliferation and nuclear policy program at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.
\u201cAny country, period, but particularly countries of proliferation concern have to be really, really robust on their nonproliferation provisions,\u201d she added.
And Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has warned<\/a> that the kingdom would try to obtain a nuclear weapon if Iran were also able to, Dolzikova\u200b noted.
Saudi Arabia also signed a mutual defense pact with Pakistan, the only Muslim nuclear nation, in September. Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif then said his country\u2019s nuclear program would \u201cbe made available\u201d to Saudi Arabia if required.
Saudi Arabia is a member state of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which promotes peaceful nuclear work but also inspects nations to ensure they do not have clandestine atomic weapon programs. Based in Vienna, the agency reports to the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.
While enrichment does not necessarily lead to a nuclear weapon, it can open the door to it. However, any country wishing to pursue one would also have to master other technologies, including the use of synchronized high explosives.
And there has been focus on whether any deal would include the \u201cgold standard\u201d safeguards that would block Saudi Arabia from enriching uranium and reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, both of which are potential pathways to nuclear weapons.
It also remains to be seen whether the agreement includes the \u201cAdditional Protocol\u201d that grants the IAEA greater oversight of a country\u2019s nuclear activities.
Ultimately, \u201cthe devil will be in the details,\u201d said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the London-based think tank Chatham House. If Saudi Arabia does retain the right to enrich, she said, \u201cit\u2019s the issue of domestic enrichment that will be more concerning and alarming.\u201d
The deal with the U.S. came a day after senior Saudi and United Arab Emirates officials shared similar social media posts \u200baffirming their close historical ties and \u201cwise leadership,\u201d a move that follows months of tensions owing to a rift \u200cbetween the two Persian Gulf monarchies.
The Gulf nations have been divided over \u200btheir support for opposing sides in the war in Yemen, which culminated in a Saudi airstrike late last year on what it said was a shipment of UAE military equipment to the Yemeni faction Abu Dhabi backed.
Their interests have diverged over a number of issues, including oil quotas.
But the posts from Saudi Media Minister Salman Al-Dosary and Abdulla bin Mohamed Alhamed, chairman of the UAE National Media Authority, said they should focus on their shared history and heritage.
Garrett Haake is NBC News' chief White House correspondent.
Chantal Da Silva reports on world news for NBC News Digital and is based in London.
Steve Kopack is a senior reporter at NBC News covering business and the economy.
Dan De Luce\u00a0is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit.\u00a0
Abigail Williams is a producer and reporter for NBC News covering the State Department.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeThe U.S. signed a landmark nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the Energy Department announced on X. Subscribe to read this story ad-freeGet unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.\u201cU.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Saudi Minister of Energy His Royal Highness (HRH) Prince […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":218001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}