🚨Will Saudi Arabia Join The Abraham Accords in Exchange for Going Nuclear?

**Ben Hilton** (0:00)
Just this week, the United States signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia to, in their words, set the stage for long-term economic and energy partnership between the two nations. This is an absolute bombshell, and it has very interesting implications with the US's relationship with the Middle East, also the Iran War, and the current nuclear status quo of the world. Also in the middle of all of this, Trump drops another bombshell in regard to the Abraham Accords. Behind closed doors, President Trump just might be trading nuclear capability with the Saudis for peace with Israel. What on earth is going on?
So the US Secretary of Energy and the Saudi Minister of Energy just formally signed a deal that will facilitate the US sharing nuclear power technology with the Saudis. There is a strong possibility that this is Trump's backup plan for the failure to recover the nuclear material from Iran. I know that might sound absurd, but let me explain.
First off, this deal with the Saudis has been in discussion for quite some time. Actually, back in 2023, the US was in discussion with the Saudis about trading nuclear technology for joining the Abraham Accords with Israel.
Some even speculated that this was one of the reasons Iran greenlit the October 7th attack to drive a wedge in the negotiations before the deal could be signed. Either way, just as of this week, the deal between the US and the Saudis was officially signed with one detail missing. In the initial report on the deal, there was no mention of normalization with Israel. This is strange because on the surface, the US would have very little incentive to give nuclear technology to the Saudis, if not for a deal with Israel. President Trump was quick to take to truth social, though, with a statement that said the deal would only be approved if the Saudis joined the Abraham Accords and accepted a ban on uranium enrichment. Israel's Prime Minister was also quick to follow this up with a statement of his own saying Saudi Arabia's joining the Abraham Accords would be a historic leap forward for peace in the Middle East. So from both of these leaders, it sounds like the Saudis are joining the Accords. It's too early to tell for sure, but an American journalist, Laura Rosen, quoted an unnamed Saudi source who said Trump's demand came too late. He said the deal was already signed, so there is nothing left to negotiate. We'll circle back to this in a second, but before we do, I want to briefly touch on what's driving the Saudis currently. Saudi Arabia is in a vulnerable place. Geographically, they're sandwiched between Yemen and Iraq, with Iran just beyond that. Economically, they heavily depend on oil and gas exports, but Saudi Arabia is not a military powerhouse. Overall, their force projection is mediocre at best, and their defense system isn't much better. The Ayatollahs have a deep-seated resentment toward the Saudis for a number of reasons.
There's the Saudi involvement in the Gulf War, Saudi wealth, and the fact that the Saudis see themselves as the religious leaders of the Muslim world, with Mecca and Medina located in their country. And there's also just the deep-seated hatred of the Arab monarchies in general. You'll remember that it was a monarchy that the Ayatollahs toppled in their revolution in Iran in the 1970s. Because of all of this, Saudi leadership is deeply insecure when it comes to Iran. They know that a well-placed volley of ballistic missiles from Iran could knock out their oil and gas exports in a matter of minutes. Because of these fears, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman warned in 2018 that if Iran builds a nuclear bomb, he will also build nuclear bombs. Also just last year, the Saudis signed a deal with Pakistan that assures strategic mutual defense. Basically, if either country is attacked, the other one will come to their aid. The exact details of this deal are still classified, but many speculate that it's very possible that Pakistan has agreed to share nuclear deterrence.
Basically, they would privately send a message to Iran or any other nuclear force threatening the Saudis, saying an attack on the Saudis would trigger the launch of Pakistani nukes. So with all of this in mind, you can see why the Saudis would be eager to begin working in closer cooperation with the United States. But why are they so eager to accept US help in building these nuclear power plants, especially during this war with Iran? I think there are two main reasons here, what's being said publicly and what's actually true behind closed doors. Publicly, even though Saudi Arabia is sitting on the world's second largest oil reserve, they are working toward the long term vision of building their economy to be oil independent. Basically, when the oil runs out, they will be able to function just fine. But that doesn't explain why they would push a deal like this through in the middle of a war. And that brings us to what I think is actually happening behind closed doors.