US signs landmark nuclear pact with Saudi Arabia

**Oliver Conway** (0:00)
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
Hello, I'm Oliver Conway, and we're recording this at 4 o'clock GMT on Thursday the 23rd of July. The US signs a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia, despite fears it could allow the Gulf Kingdom to develop a nuclear bomb. Israel has condemned the agreement. We have a special report on the growing protests against the education system in India by the so-called Cockroach Party. And Venezuela's ousted leader, Nicolas Maduro, has appeared in court in New York. What's the view in Caracas?
Also in this podcast.

**Taye Wokola Ogunlade** (0:38)
From the data, the one that surprised me the most is AI and sign language. It's really, really mind-blowing and very interesting.

**Oliver Conway** (0:46)
The young Nigerians using AI to learn different languages. And the film version of the Odyssey helps boost sales of the book.
President Trump says his war in the Middle East is aimed at stopping Iran getting a nuclear weapon. However, the US has now signed a pact with Iran's rival Saudi Arabia, which could allow it to develop a nuclear bomb and possibly trigger an arms race. The agreement is supposed to establish a civilian nuclear programme in the Gulf Kingdom. But critics say lax safeguards mean the Saudis could be able to enrich uranium and reprocess nuclear waste and thus gain the ability to make a bomb. America's ally Israel has condemned the deal.
Here's former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

**Naftali Bennett** (1:39)
The nuclear agreement taking shape with Saudi Arabia over Israel's head is a severe strategic failure that endangers our security. Enrichment of nuclear material on Saudi soil could lead to a regional nuclear arms race and a dangerous loss of control.
There is truly no way to predict what the Middle East will look like in a decade or two, which is why what we need is fewer centrifuges in the Middle East, not more.

**Oliver Conway** (2:04)
The Trump administration insists the agreement will not lead to proliferation. Both Iran and Saudi Arabia have long insisted they have the right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme and have no intention of developing a bomb. Saudi Arabia has said it would turn to China or Russia if it didn't get help from the US.
Rina Shah is a former senior congressional advisor for the Republicans.

**Rina Shah** (2:28)
It's smart strategic leadership. American companies leading Saudi's civilian programme means US jobs, exports and real influence, not ceding the field to China or Russia.
We all want ironclad, non-proliferation. I think this deal really delivers bilateral controls with American oversight and IAEA involvement on enrichment. These are practical protections that keep us in the driver's seat.

**Oliver Conway** (2:56)
But Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, says he has deep concerns over the deal.

**Ro Khanna** (3:04)
Saudi has not committed to giving up nuclear fuel production. In fact, they claim they have the right to do that and they haven't agreed to inspection. So it is a terrible deal, but Trump is floundering in the Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz is closed, we're losing service members, gas prices are up, the Saudis were upset at us because of this ill-planned war. And so you see an administration flailing, making poor decisions.

**Oliver Conway** (3:31)
The agreement will still have to be reviewed by the US Congress, but opponents are unlikely to have enough votes to block it. Our Chief North America correspondent Gary O'Donoghue told us about the two parts of the deal, the Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Agreement and the Bilateral Safeguards Agreement.

**Gary O'Donoghue** (3:48)
The first one is we're understanding a 30-year deal for the Americans to build civilian nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia, tens of billions of dollars in potential revenues. And alongside it, we're told there will be a bilateral safeguards agreement. Now that is crucial because some of the commentary around this has been that Saudi Arabia would be not quite as under scrutiny as other deals have been in the past, particularly allowing it potentially to enrich its own uranium, which the US doesn't normally do when it does these deals, and also to have a slightly looser inspection regime. The bilateral word suggests to me that that's a safeguards arrangement between the US and Saudi Arabia, maybe not involving the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was usual in the past, but we'll have to wait and see the actual text to know if that's true.
I mean, the deal has been in the pipeline for some time. The Biden administration wanted to do this deal. They tied it specifically, though, to Israel and Saudi Arabia normalising relations. That fell apart after the attacks on Israel by Hamas. That linkage appears to have been dropped from this deal. The key thing, though, here, and the Americans are open about this, is that Russia and China were sniffing around this arrangement, trying to get in on this, big time. In fact, Russia had signed a couple of preliminary agreements with Saudi Arabia on this. So, the Americans were fearing that they would get frozen out. And that may be a potential reason, if it transpires to be the case, that there may be lack of controls, particularly on proliferation issues. But a big geopolitical win in that region, they don't want to lose their relationship with Saudi Arabia, they don't want to lose their leverage. And this is a big way of tying that in for several decades to come. So this will be regarded as a huge commercial success obviously, but something of a coup for the State Department as well.