Shafaq News- Washington

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the proposed US-Saudi civil nuclear agreement will move forward only if Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords*.

Trump stated that the arrangement with the US Department of Energy would be limited to civilian, non-military nuclear activities and would not permit uranium enrichment, noting, “The United States is not opposed to Civil (Non-Enriched) Nuclear Facilities.”

Washington and Riyadh signed two accords on Tuesday creating the legal framework for long-term civilian nuclear cooperation. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed a peaceful nuclear cooperation pact, known as a “123 agreement,” alongside a bilateral safeguards agreement, according to the US Department of Energy.

The agreement drew alarm across Israeli officials, with criticism directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of the file.

Avigdor Lieberman, a former Israeli defense minister and foreign minister, said on Israel's public broadcaster on Wednesday that the agreement risked drawing the wider Middle East into an accelerating nuclear arms race.

Speaking to Israel's army radio station, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak characterized the agreement as a marker of “the loss of trust between Netanyahu and Trump.”

Yair Lapid, leader of the Israeli opposition, said on an Israeli podcast that preventing a Saudi nuclear program was Netanyahu's responsibility and that the outcome amounted to a failure on his part. "His job is to prevent a Saudi nuclear program," Lapid said.

“Given Israel already has nukes, it's no surprise they don't want any of their neighbors to have them too,” Trump posted.

* Launched in 2020 during Trump’s first administration, the Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.

Read more: Abraham Accords resurface: Trump is selling a new Middle East