Kaine, Colleagues Urge Trump-Vance Administration to Abandon Saudi Nuclear Deal That Omits Key Nonproliferation Safeguards

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) joined U.S. Senators Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) in sending a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging the Trump-Vance Administration to abandon its proposed nuclear cooperation agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The agreement fails to meet the "Gold Standard", in which the recipient country voluntarily renounces the pursuit of enrichment and reprocessing meant to produce weapons-grade nuclear material, and does not require Saudi Arabia to sign the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Additional Protocol. The IAEA approved the Additional Protocol in 1997, and since then, the United States has not negotiated a new nuclear deal with a country that has not signed it.

"With this deal, the Trump Administration is departing from precedent, adopting looser restrictions, and caving to Saudi demands by agreeing to a process that is all but certain to allow Riyadh to acquire the means to enrich uranium and possibly develop nuclear weapons," wrote the senators. "If the Administration is serious about preventing that outcome, it should require Riyadh to meet the Gold Standard. And likewise, if Saudi Arabia genuinely has no intention of pursuing a nuclear weapon, it should have little objection to accepting the same commitments that the UAE and other states have made: implementing an Additional Protocol and banning enrichment and reprocessing."

The senators also raised concerns about media reports suggesting the United States could build and operate a "black box" enrichment facility on Saudi soil. They warned that such an arrangement would make it difficult to prevent Saudi Arabia from gaining sensitive information about the facility, and would place American technology and personnel in a region at war. Because an attack on the facility would be an attack on U.S. interests, the senators noted that the arrangement would amount to an open-ended security guarantee to Saudi Arabia that Congress has not debated.

The senators further argued that the deal undermines U.S. efforts to prevent Iran from enriching uranium. "If Saudi Arabia can enrich uranium without the strongest inspections, Tehran will demand the same treatment," wrote the senators. "President Trump is weakening his own negotiating position while increasing the odds of regional nuclear proliferation."

In addition to Kaine, Markey, and Merkley, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Full text of the letter is available here.

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