Congress Has The Power to Fix the Trump-Saudi Nuclear Deal

Congress has at least 9 months and considerable leverage to make things right.

By Alan J. Kuperman, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Press reports claim that Congress cannot stop the Trump administration’s nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia, despite significant proliferation concerns, because it will enter force automatically in a mere 90 days after its August 24 submittal to Capitol Hill. Democrats and a handful of dissenting Republicans could try to pass a disapproval resolution that was introduced recently in both houses. But President Donald Trump could veto it, and Republicans in Congress would not override that veto, which means the deal is essentially a fait accompli.

In reality, however, the prospects of Congressional action are not so bleak. Because of the US Atomic Energy Act’s fine print and the deal’s legal shortcomings, Congress has at least 9 months and considerable leverage to make things right.

Proliferation concerns. Three aspects of the Saudi deal are most objectionable. First, the agreement explicitly refers to uranium enrichment “technologies that could be deployed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” The danger is that any enrichment technology provided for peaceful purposes could also make weapons-grade uranium or be duplicated to do so secretly elsewhere in the country. Moreover, allowing Saudi enrichment could spur similar demands from other countries in the region and beyond, spreading the risks.

Second, the Saudis have refused to sign the Additional Protocol of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which allows “environmental sampling” to detect illicit nuclear activity at sites “other than those” disclosed by the country. Riyadh instead has signed a bilateral safeguards agreement with Washington, which does not permit such inspections of undeclared facilities. This feeds suspicion that the Saudis are contemplating secret bomb plants.