U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Deal Clears Vienna Hurdle As Congress Review Continues

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s chief told reporters in Vienna that while Saudi Arabia will not adopt the IAEA’s Additional Protocol — the agreement that permits unannounced inspections at undeclared sites — Riyadh is preparing to grant the agency monitoring and verification rights over the nuclear activities most sensitive for proliferation: conversion, enrichment and reprocessing. Grossi said the powers being written into the bilateral safeguards arrangement will closely resemble what the Additional Protocol offers for those activities, though he did not provide technical specifics.

The cooperation framework stems from a U.S.-Saudi 123 agreement signed on July 22 by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, concluding more than a decade of intermittent negotiations. The pact opens the door for U.S. commercial involvement in building reactors in the kingdom and preserves Riyadh’s option to pursue domestic enrichment. Under terms reported at signing, the two governments will take up to two years to determine whether establishing enrichment on Saudi soil makes commercial sense; any plant built later would use a so-called 'black box' arrangement with U.S. firms operating the facility without transferring the underlying technology.

The White House transmitted the finalized deal to Congress in late August, triggering a 90-day review under the Atomic Energy Act. Lawmakers can allow the agreement to take effect by inaction or seek to reject it through a joint resolution of disapproval, which would require enough votes to overcome a presidential veto. The proposal has drawn bipartisan concerns on Capitol Hill, with critics warning it could encourage an enrichment race in the Middle East.

Beyond U.S. domestic politics, the pact sits inside larger regional and commercial dynamics. Riyadh views civilian nuclear power as part of its Vision 2030 economic diversification, with U.S. firms like Westinghouse positioned to bid on multi‑billion dollar reactor contracts. The administration has linked the deal to Saudi progress toward normalizing relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords, a step Riyadh has conditioned on advances toward Palestinian statehood. Meanwhile, the bilateral safeguards text still needs finalization in Vienna and approval by the IAEA’s 35-member Board of Governors, and it remains to be seen whether the terms Grossi described will satisfy skeptics in Washington and beyond.