Trump Sends the U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Agreement to Congress While Still Conditioning It on Riyadh Joining the Abraham Accords

The administration formally transmitted its civil nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia to Congress on Monday, Aug. 24, an administration official and two other sources told ABC News. The agreement, struck under Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act, was signed on July 22 by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. The Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees have 90 days of continuous session to review it, a clock that can be stopped.

Transmission starts the statutory review even though the administration says the deal will not proceed unless Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords - a condition Trump added a day after signing that was not in the negotiated text. Riyadh has tied normalization with Israel to a path to Palestinian statehood.

U.S. officials have previously said the agreement leaves open the possibility of Saudi uranium enrichment; Trump has publicly said there will be "no enrichment of material!" The Wall Street Journal first reported the transmission.