Trump sparks fear as he hands powerful nuclear technology to foreign power as Iran war spirals
By PHILLIP NIETO, US POLITICAL REPORTER
Published: 08:07 EDT, 22 July 2026 \| Updated: 08:34 EDT, 22 July 2026
Donald Trump will allow Saudi Arabia to develop its own civilian nuclear program under a sweeping new deal as the Iran war spirals into the Red Sea and oil races toward $100 a barrel.
The agreement is reported to be worth tens of billions of dollars and structured to give US companies a central role in building the kingdom's uranium enrichment facilities on Saudi soil.
Saudi leaders are said to have agreed only to limited international inspections of the sites. Those arrangements are intended to stop enriched fuel being diverted towards weapons.
Some US lawmakers and Israeli officials have opposed the plan, fearing the Saudis could use a civilian program as a stepping stone to nuclear weapons. Trump has dropped the previous condition that any such deal be tied to Saudi recognition of Israel.
Trump's deal is expected to last 30 years and now heads to Congress, where opponents would need a veto-proof supermajority to block it.
The agreement is controversial in part because the US went to war with Iran to stop Tehran from enriching uranium for its own nuclear program.
It comes as the war widened this week, with Iranian-backed Houthi militants declaring a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia. The move threatens the Red Sea route through which the kingdom has been diverting millions of barrels of oil a day around the effectively closed Strait of Hormuz
Closing Bab al-Mandab as well could cut off a quarter of the world's oil and gas supply. Heightened tensions in the Gulf pushed Brent crude to $95 a barrel by Wednesday morning, according to the New York Times.
Donald Trump will allow Saudi Arabia to develop its own civilian nuclear program under a sweeping new deal as the Iran war spirals into the Red Sea