Trump Links Saudi Nuclear Deal to Israel Recognition and Abraham Accords

US President Donald Trump is insisting the US deal allowing Saudi Arabia to develop a nuclear energy industry has one major condition — the Arab kingdom must formally recognise the State of Israel

In his first comments about the nuclear agreement since its announcement, Mr Trump said Saudi Arabia would have to join the Abraham Accords for the deal to go ahead, and also said there would be no enrichment of uranium by Riyadh under the plan.

The US has long seen the normalisation of ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel as one of its great diplomatic goals, given the power and influence the oil-rich nation has in the region.

The Biden administration seemed to come close to achieving that, before the war in Gaza erupted and Saudi Arabia took a far harder stance against Israel.

It has previously said it would only recognise Israel if Israel in turn recognised a Palestinian state — something the Netanyahu government has refused to do.

"The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!) being made between the United States Department of Energy and Saudi Arabia, which pertains only to non-military use such as the ones that Iran and UAE (and others) already have, will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords," Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

The deal between Washington and Riyadh was announced by press release on Wednesday in the US, with many of its terms kept tightly under wraps, and there was no mention of the Abraham Accords in the scant detail which was released.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt effectively confirmed the Abraham Accords condition was added after the announcement of the deal, and said Mr Trump had not spoken to Saudi Arabia's de facto leader Mohammed bin Salman about the issue.

She said it should not be a surprise, given his recent comments on the matter.

The original announcement had fuelled anger in Israel, which immediately saw the deal as having the potential to fuel a race to secure nuclear weapons across the Middle East — even though the agreement is focused on nuclear energy.

Israel has its own highly secretive nuclear industry, although it has not publicly acknowledged having nuclear weapons.

Opposition politicians Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman led the criticism of the deal on Wednesday, saying it opened the door to Saudi Arabia developing nuclear weapons and enriching uranium.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office leapt on the suggestion from the US president.

"The joint American and Israeli military action against the genocidal regime in Tehran and Israel's crushing of Iran's terror axis have created the possibility to expand the circle of peace," it said in a statement

"Peace through strength."

Saudi Arabia has been racing to diversify its economy and its own energy supplies, using massive amounts of its oil wealth to fund the transformation.

The US president has strengthened ties with the kingdom while in office, spruiking his personal relationship with Mohammed bin Salman.

The Crown Prince has used his influence with Mr Trump in recent years, including working with Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to convince the White House to drop crippling sanctions on Syria following the fall of the Assad regime.

Mohammed bin Salman has previously said that if Iran developed a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabia would follow.

Mr Trump previously floated the idea of Arab nations joining the Abraham Accords as part of any deal to end the war with Iran — but signed the interim ceasefire anyway, despite no countries signing up.

That deal has since fallen over, with a return to daily strikes across the Persian Gulf and beyond into Jordan.

Mr Trump told US news outlet Axios on Thursday, local time, that he is seriously considering restarting major combat operations in Iran but stressed he had not made a decision yet.

"I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it," he said.