ALT Jane Darby Menton: Peaceful nuclear cooperation agreements, known colloquially as 123 agreements (after the relevant section in the U.S. Atomic Energy Act), rarely make headlines, but this one stands out. Although the administration has not yet released the full text, the agreement reportedly will not require Riyadh to categorically forgo fuel cycle activities that would be conducive to a nuclear weapons program (namely enrichment and reprocessing) or to accept the highest standard of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards, known as the Additional Protocol, or AP. These were key sticking points in previous nuclear negotiations with Saudi Arabia and other partners

ALT I should caveat that there’s a lot of uncertainty swirling around this agreement, not least because President Donald Trump has posted conflicting information on social media, including emphatically denying that it permits enrichment. Still, the deal clearly departs from the United States’ own “gold standard” for nuclear technology–sharing, and this matters, especially in a region that has a long and troubled history of covert nuclear weapons programs. On that point, this announcement comes in the middle of a conflict that was predicated (at least in part) on concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. Saudi leaders have also brought scrutiny on themselves by explicitly saying that the kingdom will pursue nuclear weapons if Iran acquires them.

ALT Andrew Leber: The agreement is a big deal given longstanding U.S. concerns about nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. The only previous 123 agreements signed with countries in the region were with Türkiye, a NATO treaty ally, and the UAE, which adopted the so-called gold standard, forgoing the right to enrichment and agreeing to additional IAEA inspection protocols. The United States has had a much more troubled relationship with Saudi Arabia, between the domestic Saudi radicalization that contributed to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and more recent U.S. outrage over a Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen and human rights abuses at home. The U.S.-Saudi relationship has improved in recent years, but—as Jane noted—de facto Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has continued to pledge that Saudi Arabia would follow suit should Iran ever develop nuclear weapons. An added irony is that Iran’s own nuclear program began with a U.S.-Iranian agreement under President Dwight D. Eisenhower