The Real U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Deal Is Better Than We Thought

On Aug. 24, the Trump administration transmitted the text of the U.S.-Saudi nuclear cooperation agreement to Congress. By doing so, the administration triggered the 90-day congressional review process described in the Atomic Energy Act and relaunched a debate about the right approach to international nuclear commerce. The United States and Saudi Arabia jointly announced a deal in Nov. 2025 and signed the final text in July 2026. President Trump held up its transmission to Congress over the issue of whether Saudi Arabia would normalize its relations with Israel, a topic that—according to the White House—could still lead to this agreement being shelved. But, setting this aside, there is still a lot to consider and discuss about the terms of the nuclear deal itself. All told, the agreement submitted to Congress is much improved over what was leaked to and reported in the press, though perhaps this was an exercise of media management: allowing the actual agreement to exceed the low expectations created by its preceding press...

Read the full article on the War on the Rocks website.