Nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia contingent on kingdom normalizing Israel ties: Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on Nov. 18, 2025. Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

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U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia depends on the kingdom recognizing Israel — throwing the agreement into turmoil just the day after it was signed.

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Saudi Arabia has said it will not normalize ties until Israel accepts Palestinian statehood, something the Israeli government has ruled out.

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The civilian nuclear deal announced on Wednesday had appeared to be a major win for the Saudis, especially coming as Trump wages war on Iran in large part over concerns about Tehran’s own atomic program.

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But Trump threw a gigantic spanner into the works with his post on his Truth Social network saying the Saudi deal “will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords.”

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The White House insisted that the Saudis knew the deal was contingent on recognizing Israel, despite the fact that it was not mentioned when the deal was announced.

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“The president is always the final dealmaker, as you know,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, adding that the Abraham Accords were “something that he feels very strongly about and has spoken about it in the past and will continue to uphold.”

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Leavitt said Washington would “continue to have those conversations with our Saudi counterparts” to finalize a deal including recognition of Israel.

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Trump has increased pressure on the kingdom and other countries in the region to join the Abraham Accords. Saudi Arabia is the biggest Arab power in the Middle East and Trump has long desired its participation in order to strengthen the pact and bolster Israel’s long-term security in the region. 

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“Saudi Arabia’s joining of the Abraham Accords would be an historic leap forward for peace in the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Thursday.

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The prospect of Israel agreeing to Palestinian statehood in the near future is remote, given renewed hostilities in the Middle East following Hamas’s attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

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The president’s new condition also mirrors the stance of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, who also sought to link the provision of nuclear technology to the Saudis with normalizing relations with Israel and Israeli concessions to the Palestinians. 

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Leavitt said she did not know of any calls between Trump and Netanyahu following the announcement of the Saudi agreement.

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Should it go through, the deal to establish a civilian nuclear program in Saudi Arabia would generate billions of dollars for American companies, but with Trump’s latest announcement, it was unclear whether it would ever see the light of day.

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If Washington “tries to force normalization on Riyadh, it’s not likely to work out very well”, said H.A. Hellyer, senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies.