President Donald Trump has approved a landmark nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that could potentially provide the kingdom with uranium enrichment capability for its civilian nuclear program, without requiring the kingdom to normalize ties with Israel, two sources familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.

The people, who were not authorized to comment publicly about the yet to be formally announced decision, said the agreement is expected to be announced publicly as early as Wednesday.

Trump’s approval of the deal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Israeli officials are following the developments with alarm, Ynet reported. Trump’s decision is considered a strategic setback for Jerusalem and is an indication that the White House is pulling back from Israeli interests and concerns. The decision marks a significant shift from the Biden administration’s approach, which made nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia contingent on a broader agreement that included Saudi recognition of Israel.

While Israel has not publicly criticized the agreement, senior Israeli officials familiar with the matter have privately acknowledged that it is detrimental to Israeli interests. Removing the normalization requirement weakens Israel’s leverage with Saudi Arabia and reflects a broader decline in Jerusalem’s influence with the Trump administration.

Brig. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Nagel, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council, said that allowing Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium should be a red line.

“The bottom line is that any uranium enrichment of any kind on Saudi soil is a mistake, regardless of who carries it out or how it is supervised,” Nagel told Ynet.

Jeremy Issacharoff, a former senior Israeli diplomat who headed the Foreign Ministry’s strategic affairs division and specializes in nuclear proliferation, was more vehement about the reported deal, calling it “extremely dangerous.”

“According to the reports, this is a worrying and unprecedented development concerning the prevention of nuclear proliferation in the region,” Issacharoff told Ynet.

Senior Israeli officials also expressed concerns that the agreement is part of a series of recent US policy decisions that have raised concerns in Jerusalem, including efforts to advance a possible sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey and Washington’s apparent willingness, in negotiations with Iran, to soften its position on issues Israel considers red lines, including Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its continued support for regional proxy organizations.

The deal is expected to last 30 years and is also expected to involve U.S. firms in developing the program. The deal could allow for the building of a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia following a joint U.S.-Saudi study.

But the deal, which is expected to be submitted to Congress for review, could face headwinds among lawmakers who fear that helping the Saudis fulfill their long-standing desire to enrich their own uranium would open new rounds of nuclear proliferation and competition.

Nonproliferation experts warn any spinning centrifuges within Saudi Arabia could open the door to a possible weapons program for the kingdom, something its assertive de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has suggested he could pursue if Tehran obtains an atomic bomb.

Saudi Arabia is a member state of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a Vienna-based agency which promotes peaceful nuclear work but also inspects nations to ensure they don’t have clandestine atomic weapons programs. But the agreement is not expected to include the IAEA’s Additional Protocol, which would allow for more monitoring, inspections and verification, according to one of the people.

The White House and Saudi officials in Riyadh did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Trump administration officials as saying that the agreement would give Washington a significant role in Saudi Arabia’s nuclear program while positioning American companies at the center of a project potentially worth tens of billions of dollars. The officials emphasized that U.S. participation would help ensure nuclear material is not diverted for military purposes while reducing opportunities for Chinese and Russian companies to expand their influence.

However, opponents contend that permitting Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium could accelerate the spread of sensitive nuclear technology across the Middle East.

Unlike the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia has so far refused to adopt what nuclear nonproliferation experts call the industry’s “gold standard”—a legally binding pledge not to enrich uranium or reprocess spent nuclear fuel on its own territory. The UAE accepted those restrictions under its civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States before building the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant with South Korean assistance.

Robert Einhorn, a former senior U.S. State Department official who advised both Democratic and Republican administrations on nuclear nonproliferation, told the Journal that the proposed agreement could revitalize the U.S. nuclear industry, deepen strategic ties between Washington and Riyadh, and further reduce the influence of China and Russia in the region.

At the same time, he cautioned that if the agreement does not include meaningful safeguards—particularly strict limits on uranium enrichment—it could heighten nuclear proliferation risks not only in the Middle East but elsewhere as well.

The Journal also quoted Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, who warned that other regional powers could follow Saudi Arabia’s lead.

‘Where Saudi Arabia goes, the UAE, Turkey and Egypt will go,’ he said.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright traveled to Saudi Arabia last year shortly before Trump visited the kingdom and discussed building out the kingdom’s commercial nuclear power industry with his Saudi counterpart. The U.S. Department of Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Tuesday.

Already, Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact after Israel launched an attack on Qatar targeting Hamas officials. Pakistan’s defense minister then said his nation’s nuclear program “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed, something seen as a warning for Israel, long believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state.

Enrichment isn’t an automatic path to a nuclear weapon — a nation also must master other steps, including the use of synchronized high explosives, for instance. But it does open the door to weaponization, which has fueled the concerns of the West over Iran’s program.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem & AP)