Archiv: US-supported Saudi nuclear energy program / optional nuclear weapons program


18.05.2025 - 20:20 [ Tehran Times ]

Exclusive: Any nuclear consortium must involve enrichment to happen in Iran

(May 17, 2025)

Reports claiming that the U.S. has asked Iran to cease uranium enrichment for a couple of years are also false, a second source said. „From the outset, the negotiating team tasked with discussing a potential new agreement with the United States has made it clear that a cessation of uranium enrichment is not an option, even temporarily.“ Iran also maintained this position throughout the diplomatic process that led to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015, the source added.

13.05.2025 - 14:18 [ Saudi Gazette ]

Trump begins second term foreign tour in Riyadh, welcomed by Crown Prince

US President Donald Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for his first official overseas trip of his second term.

He was welcomed at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

13.05.2025 - 14:15 [ CNN ]

Trump meets with Saudi crown prince as Middle East trip gets under way

• Middle East visit: President Donald Trump is on the first major international trip of his second term as he works to shore up relations with a trio of key allies and prove his might as a dealmaker on the world stage.

• On the agenda: Trump received a warm welcome from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh. Later today, he is expected to speak at a US-Saudi investment forum, where Elon Musk is also listed as a speaker. Trump will travel to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week.

• Weapons sale: The US announced a weapons sale of over $1.4 billion to the UAE ahead of Trump’s trip. A slew of deals between the two countries is expected to be announced during his visit, including investments in AI, chips, manufacturing and energy. Trump may also announce a major arms sale to Saudi Arabia.

12.05.2025 - 18:19 [ Washington Post ]

Trump repeatedly bypasses Netanyahu, stoking dismay among Israelis

“It’s disconcerting,” said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington.

“It’s total panic,” said Shalom Lipner, a former Netanyahu aide and a fellow at the Atlantic Council, describing the mood in Jerusalem.

12.05.2025 - 18:16 [ CNN ]

Trump’s Middle East trip leaves Netanyahu watching from the sidelines again

The White House has called it a “historic return to the Middle East” and promised “a shared vision of stability, opportunity and mutual respect.” Israel is once again not on the itinerary. And after Trump blindsided Israel several times already – announcing talks with Iran, a deal with Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and direct talks with Hamas – Israeli officials are concerned another surprise could be coming.

08.05.2025 - 14:58 [ Al Jazeera ]

US official says Washington may advance Saudi deal without Israel: Reports

According to The Jerusalem Post, the US official told attendees Israel could face “a much heavier price” if it continues to oppose a ceasefire deal.

“President Trump is determined to move forward with a significant deal with Saudi Arabia, even without Israeli involvement,” the official reportedly said. “The ceasefire agreement with the Houthis is just a prelude. If Israel doesn’t come to its senses, even the ‘Deal of the Millennium’ will happen without it.”

The report said families of the captives hoped the meeting would result in greater international pressure on Israeli leaders to act.

08.05.2025 - 14:50 [ Reuters ]

Trump says he is not planning to visit Israel as part of upcoming trip

(May 6, 2025)

While the White House has never confirmed that Israel would be part of his upcoming trip, there have been widespread rumors in diplomatic and national security circles that he would extend his trip to visit the U.S. ally.

04.05.2025 - 19:42 [ Axios ]

Scoop: Hegseth plans Israel visit ahead of Trump‘s Middle East trip

Driving the news: Hegseth will arrive in Israel on May 12 and meet with his counterpart Israel Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

– Hegseth will then travel to Saudi Arabia to join Trump‘s trip to the Gulf.
– Trump will also visit Qatar and the UAE but is not currently expected to visit Israel.

25.02.2025 - 22:58 [ NewArab.com ]

If Arabs want Trump to ditch his Gaza plan, they must make him an offer he can‘t refuse

The upcoming Arab League summit, scheduled to convene in the Egyptian capital Cairo on March 4, represents a moment of truth for Arab governments, individually and collectively.

For 500 days they have stood by, inert, as Israel conducted a genocidal campaign against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with the unconditional support of Israel’s – and their – patron the United States.

The not entirely unpredictable culmination of this slaughter, and of the comatose Arab response, is that Washington now wants to seal the Palestinians’ fate not in Palestine, but in the Arab world and at Arab expense. It wants to literally export the Palestine question to the Arab world and thereby make it an Arab problem.

12.02.2025 - 12:45 [ CBS News ]

Trump pushes Gaza plan in meeting with Jordan‘s King Abdullah II

„I don‘t have to threaten that. I do believe we‘re above that,“ Mr. Trump said. That contradicted his previous suggestion that holding back aid was a possibility.

12.02.2025 - 12:29 [ Le Monde ]

Gaza: Trump forces King Abdullah II of Jordan into diplomatic contortions

There was something painful about watching Jordanian King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday, February 11, his eyes nervously twitching as he tried not to upset his host, Donald Trump. Journalists asked him, several times over: Was his country, Jordan, ready to receive a part of the Gazan population on its soil, as the American president wants to remove them from Palestinian territory?

The king refused to answer. In his impeccable English, he cautiously took refuge behind Egypt‘s broader international stature.

12.02.2025 - 12:14 [ Middle East Eye ]

Jordan‘s King Abdullah avoids contradicting Trump‘s claim to authority over Gaza

“I think we have to keep in mind that there is a plan from Egypt and the Arab countries,” Abdullah said when prompted to speak by the president.

“We‘re being invited by [Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman to discussions in Riyadh..“

13.01.2025 - 12:30 [ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ]

What a second Trump administration may mean for the Saudi nuclear program

(January 6, 2ß25)

Riyadh has been very clear on the kind of nuclear partnership it expects, and it is no secret that its favored option is cooperation with South Korea, similar under a 123 agreement (a nuclear cooperation document that establishes the legal basis and prerequisites for nuclear deals with the United States) allowing it to enrich uranium domestically. The problem, however, lies in the last bit of the sentence. The United States currently insists on an agreement that requires the Saudis forgo enrichment and reprocessing capabilities—two pathways to building a bomb. The reelection of Trump might be the Saudis’ chance to tip the balance in their favor.

28.12.2024 - 20:02 [ Georgetown Security Studies Review ]

The Nuclear Kingdom: Assessing Saudi Arabia’s Nuclear Behavior

(December 17, 2024)

Saudi Arabia has the characteristics of a nuclear hedger: a state that lays the groundwork for the active pursuit of nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia has stated the conditions under which it would pursue nuclear weapons. It already possesses dual-capable delivery systems and seeks reactors to produce weapons-grade uranium. Its inability to enrich nuclear material alone prevents Saudi Arabia from gaining nuclear latency that it can rapidly convert into nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia is best categorized as an insurance hedger that seeks to reduce the time needed to build a bomb. Regardless of the categorization of Saudi Arabia’s hedging, its interest in nuclear weapons has entered a new, acute stage.

21.12.2024 - 07:14 [ TKP.at ]

Gaza-Deal zwischen Saudis und Netanjahu?

„Als Gegenleistung für ihre Unterstützung und ihr Geld, so sagte mir der Israeli, würden die Vereinigten Staaten der saudischen Führung ein erweitertes Verteidigungsabkommen anbieten, das Saudi-Arabien in ihren nuklearen Schutzschirm einbeziehen würde – für den Fall, dass der Iran, Israels letzter verbliebener Feind, in den Besitz einer Atombombe gelangen sollte. “
(…)
„Der Israeli sagte mir, dass das saudische Paket einen zusätzlichen Anreiz enthält: Die Saudis würden wegschauen, wenn die Israelis Bombenangriffe durchführen, einschließlich der Bombardierung militärischer Ziele im zerrissenen Syrien, und würden Israel Zugang zu einem Flugplatz innerhalb der saudischen Grenzen gewähren. Auf diese Weise könnten israelische Bomben, die zumeist von den Vereinigten Staaten geliefert werden, innerhalb von Minuten, nicht Stunden, auf wichtige iranische Ziele abgefeuert werden.“

21.12.2024 - 01:56 [ New York Times ]

Israel Found the Hamas Money Machine Years Ago. Nobody Turned It Off.

(December 16, 2023)

Israeli leaders believed that Hamas was more interested in governing than fighting. By the time the agents discovered the ledgers in 2018, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was encouraging the government of Qatar to deliver millions of dollars to the Gaza Strip. He gambled that the money would buy stability and peace.

Mr. Levy recalled briefing Mr. Netanyahu personally in 2015 about the Hamas portfolio.

21.12.2024 - 00:37 [ Seymour Hersh ]

THE NEW CEASEFIRE EQUATION: Saudi Arabia’s entry into talks between Israel and Hamas may change Gaza’s future

In return for its support and money, the Israeli told me, the Saudi leadership would be offered an expanded defense treaty by the United States that would include Saudi Arabia in its nuclear umbrella—its zone of protection—in case Iran, Israel’s last standing enemy, were to acquire a nuclear bomb.
(…)
There is an added inducement in the Saudi package, the Israeli told me: the Saudis would look the other way as the Israelis conduct bombing raids, including bombing of military targets inside fractured Syria, and would give Israel access to an airfield within Saudi borders. This would bring Israeli bombs, most supplied by the United States, within minutes, and not hours, of key Iranian targets.

21.12.2024 - 00:12 [ Middle East Eye ]

Israel, Saudi Arabia closer to normalisation deal: Report

(December 18, 2024)

Israel and Saudi Arabia have reached a breakthrough in talks around normalising relations, Haaretz reported on Tuesday, adding that the normalisation could be related to an elusive ceasefire deal that would bring about an end to Israel‘s war on Gaza.

Sources familiar with the negotiations told Haaretz that rather than Israel agreeing to Saudi Arabia‘s demand for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the two sides agreed that Israel would give a vague commitment on a „path towards Palestinian statehood“.

11.12.2024 - 17:48 [ Council on Foreign Relations ]

Will Iran Become More Dangerous After Assad’s Ouster in Syria?

(December 8, 2024)

The Bashar al-Assad regime’s rapid collapse deals a heavy blow to Iran’s “axis of resistance” and its ability to project power in the region, and it raises fears Iran will focus more on developing its nuclear program.

29.11.2024 - 23:14 [ theCradle.co ]

KSA abandons US defense pact over Palestinian statehood ‚stalemate‘: Report

As a result of the Saudi and Israeli positions, “Riyadh and Washington hope a more modest defense pact could be sealed before President Joe Biden leaves the White House in January,” according to the Saudi and western sources.

29.11.2024 - 23:11 [ Reuters ]

Saudi Arabia abandons pursuit of US defence treaty over Israel stalemate

In a drive to get a wide-ranging mutual security treaty over the line earlier this year, Riyadh softened its position on Palestinian statehood, telling Washington that a public commitment from Israel to a two-state solution could be enough for the Gulf kingdom to normalise relations.

But with public anger in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East at fever pitch over Israel‘s military actions in Gaza, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has again made recognition of Israel conditional on it taking concrete steps to create a Palestinian state, two Saudi and three Western sources said.

15.11.2024 - 18:00 [ AtlanticCouncil.org ]

JCPOA: A New Gold Standard for Non-Proliferation Agreements

(June 7, 2017)

The established pattern of constraints on Iran’s nuclear program could be held as the gold standard for the rest of the international community. This option is readily available to the United States and the partners with which it negotiated the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA): China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union. The international community should draw on that agreement and turn its standards into general, global ones, applying them to all countries seeking to enrich uranium or attempting to use plutonium for any purpose.

15.11.2024 - 17:55 [ ]

IAEA chief tours two key Iranian nuclear facilities

In 2015, Iran proved the peaceful nature of its nuclear program to the world by signing the multilateral nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — with six world powers.

However, Washington’s unilateral withdrawal in 2018 and its subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the deal in limbo.

In 2019, Iran started to roll back the limits it had accepted under the JCPOA after the other parties failed to live up to their commitments.

13.11.2024 - 17:26 [ Dawn.com ]

A summit to nowhere

After silently watching Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza for the past one year, the leaders of the Arab and Muslim countries have once more met in Riyadh to discuss the escalating conflict.

The so-called international alliance conceived by Saudi Arabia, with its aim of pressing for the establishment of a Palestinian state, failed to formulate a concrete plan of action to stop the Israeli invasion that has been extended to Lebanon.

24.10.2024 - 08:57 [ B’Tselem ]

The world must stop the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza

For a year now, since the war began, the international community has shown utter impotence to stop the indiscriminate attack on civilians in the Gaza Strip. Now, when it is clearer than ever that Israel intends to forcibly displace northern Gaza’s residents by committing some of the gravest crimes under the laws of war, the world’s nations must take action.

Without immediate, decisive action from the international community, without using every tool available – political, legal, economic – the mass killings in the northern Gaza Strip will continue and the suffering of its besieged civilians will grow. All international bodies and institutions must act now to compel Israel to stop the war and end the carnage.

12.10.2024 - 05:10 [ Jonathan Cook ]

War on Gaza: Israel wants to finish the job Washington started after 9/11

In 2007, former Nato commander Wesley Clark recounted a meeting at the Pentagon shortly after the US invasion of Afghanistan. An officer told him: “We are going to attack and destroy the governments in seven countries in five years. We’re going to start with Iraq, and then we’re going to move to Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran.”

Clark added of the neoconservatives: “They wanted us to destabilise the Middle East, turn it upside down, make it under our control.”

As I documented in my 2008 book Israel and the Clash of Civilisations, Israel was supposed to carry out a central chunk of Washington’s post-Iraq plan, starting with its war on Lebanon in 2006. Israel’s attack there was supposed to drag in Syria and Iran, giving the US a pretext to expand the war.

This was what the US secretary of state of the time, Condoleezza Rice, meant when she spoke of the “birth pangs of a new Middle East”.

The plan went awry largely because Israel got bogged down in phase one, in Lebanon. It blitzed cities like Beirut with US-supplied bombs, but its soldiers struggled against Hezbollah in a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

The West subsequently found other ways to deal with Syria and Libya.

10.10.2024 - 06:08 [ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ]

The coming US-Saudi nuclear deal: Keep it honest

(January 5, 2024)

In 1988, the Central Intelligence Agency did discover that Riyadh bought SS-2 medium-range missiles from China but only after the deal was sealed. In 2003, when China exported DF-21 ballistic missiles to the Kingdom, the CIA again found out and was even allowed to verify the missiles were not nuclear-capable, but only after the missiles were delivered.

Several years later, when intelligence finally leaked out that China secretly built missile factories for the Saudis, the Trump administration was mum on whether there was an intelligence failure and allowed speculation that it had blessed the transaction. Then, in 2020, when US intelligence confirmed China was helping the Kingdom mill uranium domestically, it did so, again only after the mining and milling were well underway.

This track record of studied inadvertence, then, brings us to the next worry: MBS wants Washington to green-light the Kingdom enriching uranium…

10.10.2024 - 05:12 [ Institute for National Security Studies - INSS.org.il ]

Normalization for Proliferation? The Saudi Nuclear Strategy and the Price of Peace with Israel

(March 19, 2023)

In general, the Saudis wish to present themselves as Iran’s equals, and if Iran can enrich uranium, say the Saudis, then so can we. In addition, the Saudis want to keep all their nuclear options open, even if they are not intending to work on the development of nuclear weapons immediately.

10.10.2024 - 04:33 [ Jerusalem Post ]

Saudi nuclear program can be secretly managed – top Israeli sources

(September 14, 2023)

Top Israeli sources have told the Jerusalem Post that there are secret technological ways to ensure that the Saudis do not misuse civilian nuclear items, which the US may give them as part of a three-way normalization deal, for military purposes.

Although there are no guarantees, because the issue is highly technical and there are issues to address regarding the Palestinians and highly complex politics, these technological fixes could be key to locking in a normalization deal between Riyadh and Jerusalem, under Washington’s auspices.

10.10.2024 - 03:10 [ Reuters ]

U.S. approved secret nuclear power work for Saudi Arabia

(March 27, 2019)

Many U.S. lawmakers are concerned that sharing nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia could eventually lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. (…)

Last month, Democratic House members alleged in a report that top White House aides ignored warnings they could be breaking the law as they worked with former U.S. officials in a group called IP3 International to advance a multibillion-dollar plan to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.

10.10.2024 - 02:51 [ CommonDreams.org ]

Senators Express Concerns Over Reports That Saudis Want US Support for Nuclear Program

(Oct 04, 2023)

Amid reports that Saudi Arabia is seeking United States support for its nuclear energy program—whose capacities critics fear could be utilized to develop nuclear weapons—a group of 20 U.S. senators on Wednesday urged President Joe Biden to „seriously consider“ whether such a move is in the national interest as the administration brokers a possible normalization deal between the kingdom and Israel.

10.10.2024 - 02:24 [ ForeignPolicy.com ]

Peace With Israel Means War With Iran

(August 30, 2023)

Policymakers in Washington and the Middle East have been busy talking about the possibility of Saudi Arabia normalizing its ties with Israel in return, in part, for a formal defense pact with the United States. Receiving far less attention is a critical question, at least for Riyadh: Would such a move jeopardize Saudi Arabia’s recent diplomatic accord with Iran?

10.10.2024 - 01:30 [ JNS.org ]

US senators press Saudi Arabia for peace deal with Israel by end of year

“We are here at a historic time … and now it is an historic moment of opportunity,” Blumenthal stated. “It really is a magnificent potential achievement with enduring effect to match the successes of the battlefield with diplomatic successes.

10.10.2024 - 01:20 [ Reuters ]

In Jerusalem, US Senator Graham urges Israel-Saudi normalisation before year end

(October 8, 2024)

„We can get you a treaty through the Senate between the United States and Saudi Arabia, a defense agreement like you have in Japan and Australia, if you do it on President Biden‘s watch,“ Graham, who is seen as close to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, told reporters in Jerusalem.

„The next president will have a very difficult time getting 67 votes,“ he said in reference to the two-thirds majority needed in the U.S. Senate for approving a defense treaty.

10.10.2024 - 00:12 [ JNS.org ]

US ‘highly vigilant’ of future Iranian attacks on Israel, Sullivan says at Oct. 7 memorial

“The challenge going forward is to turn tactical wins in battle into a strategy that secures Israel’s people and its future,” Sullivan said. “That takes real discipline. It takes courage. It takes foresight to match the conduct of war to a clear and sustainable set of objectives and to turn tactical advantage into enduring strategic gains.”

05.10.2024 - 18:41 [ Newsweek ]

Iran Braces for Israeli Attack That Could Change the Middle East Forever

(October 3, 2024)

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran‘s longtime supreme leader, has for decades officially banned the production of nuclear weapons. But Israel, which possesses its own semisecret nuclear arsenal, has long accused the country of also clandestinely pursuing weapons of mass destruction.

05.10.2024 - 05:42 [ Times of India ]

Trump says Israel should ‚hit Iran‘s nuclear facilities first‘ days after Biden urges restraint

„Isn‘t that what you‘re supposed to hit? I mean, it‘s the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons,“ he said.

„When they asked him that question, the answer should have been, hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later,“ Trump added.

05.10.2024 - 05:27 [ CNN ]

Israel has given no assurances it won’t target Iran’s nuclear facilities, top State Department official tells CNN

The official added that it is “really hard to tell” if Israel will use the anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attacks to retaliate.

“We hope and expect to see some wisdom as well as strength, but as you guys know, no guarantees,” the official said when asked by CNN if Israel has assured the US that Iran’s nuclear sites are off the table.