The hypocrisy is stunning. 
The Saudi Path to Enriching Uranium
The Washington Post reports U.S. signs nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia that gives it path to enriching fuel.
The Trump administration on Wednesday signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia that gives that country a pathway to enriching nuclear fuel and commits it to using U.S. firms to supply its reactors.
The agreement, which the Energy Department announced had been signed, is certain to spark heated debate in Congress, where many lawmakers have long expressed concern that exporting enrichment capabilities will lead to a proliferation of nuclear arms.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has spoken openly about working to develop nuclear weapons if Iran is not stopped from getting them.
While the Trump administration offered little information about the agreement’s contents, three people familiar with it shared details with The Washington Post. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the agreement publicly.
The people familiar with the new agreement say it is designed with safeguards to keep the Saudis from enriching nuclear fuel to weapons-grade level. But they also acknowledge it includes a waiver that exempts the Saudis from the aggressive international inspections required in nuclear reactor deals with other countries, including the United Arab Emirates.
Instead, sensitive inspections would be executed by American teams under terms spelled out in the agreement, which was initially worked out when the crown prince visited Washington in November.
Because the deal does not include conventional international inspections, President Donald Trump had to sign a separate national security waiver for it to go forward, according to the individuals familiar with it.
The agreement is sparking alarm in Israel, where officials have long sought to keep neighboring nations from enriching nuclear fuel. Unlike the Biden administration’s proposed nuclear energy pact with Saudi Arabia, which U.S. officials had predicated on the Persian Gulf state recognizing Israel’s right to exist, there is no such stipulation in the arrangement Trump negotiated.
Bennett, who is challenging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming elections, called the deal “a severe strategic failure that jeopardizes our security” by threatening to trigger a regional “nuclear arms race and a dangerous loss of control.”
Israel Ziv, a former head of the Israel Defense Forces Operations Division, wrote in the daily newspaper Maariv that the agreement “is the final diplomatic nail in the coffin for the future of regional normalization.”
Even analysts who concede that the expansion of enrichment to Saudi Arabia and other countries is inevitable — as countries pursue nuclear power amid fast-rising global energy demand — question the structure of the agreement.
Richard Nephew, who advised Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama on the Middle East, said in an interview that the sidelining of international inspectors would set a worrisome precedent. He said that while U.S. inspectors are capable of robust review of nuclear activities, adversaries of the U.S. are unlikely to trust their findings and may choose to abandon inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“The point is not that Americans can’t do a great job at inspections,” he said. “The point is if you were Iran, how much confidence would you have in American inspections of Saudi operations? How would we feel if the Iranians said, ‘Don’t worry. Russians will inspect us.’ We would not accept that.”
Members of Congress are already criticizing the framework. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California) noted during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday that Iran’s nuclear program, which the White House says it is now being leveraged by Iranian leaders to build a weapon, is rooted in U.S. technology given to that country when it was still run by the shah.
“We have no idea who is going to be running Saudi Arabia 10 years from now,” Sherman said. “We are bombing Iran because they insist upon enriching and reprocessing. We are entering into an agreement with Saudi Arabia, giving them the green light to reprocess and to enrich, and the only difference I see here is that Westinghouse stands to make an awful lot of money on this deal, whereas the Iranians were not enriching American companies.”
Congressional Review
Should Congress Block This?
The question is moot because this is a done deal. It takes two-thirds majority to block it.
Trump call this a victory for non-proliferation.
If anything, it will increase Iran’s desire for a nuclear weapon.
when nuclear started the likelihood of getting close to your target was bad so you needed a bigger bang to ensure success. Now you can take a missile and send it down somebody’s chimney to take them out. Big bombs of the nuclear variety have outlived their usefulness except for threatening and saying “mine’s bigger”
I seriously doubt the wisdom of any islams having nuclear technology.
i keep forgetting which nation used nukes on civilians in 2 cities? were they mooooooslims in Truman’s whitehouse?
Nothing older than 20 years counts.
like squirrels. pax dumbfuckistan
I can see the peaceful ME when every country has nuclear weapons.
Israel Zionist will stop expanding their territory.
Does Taco have shares in Westinghouse? This F’er is just unbelievable…
Give the people who did 9/11 nukes… What could possibly go wrong?
9.11.01 was a few guys with razor blades. though it was one of the greatest battle maneuvers of all history. saudi kingdom was the sworn enemy of osama bin laden. they were next on his list.
Bin Laden got plenty of money from people in the extended Saudi royal family.
of course. protection racket. he snapped when the kingdom wouldn’t let him fight the infidels and rid arabia of amerikan bases……….
FBI declassified document related to its investigation into the planning of the 9/11 attacks and the alleged role of Saudi Arabia’s government.
• 9/11 Families United said the report and other evidence “confirms that it was a group of Saudi government officials affiliated with the Kingdom’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, the cradle of Wahhabi extremism within the Saudi government, who came immediately to their aid as they commenced their terrorist preparations.”
How about the dancing Israelis and “Urban Moving Systems”?
Hitting the bottom of the barrel today eh Joe? Can we get a space laser post from you next?
Good morning Rabbi !
Right. And Nordstream was carried out by renegade Ukrainians.
And Oswald did JFK solo.
Bond prices lower and foreclosures spiking is all you need to know
Take Dow 50,000 and stick it where the sun don’t shine
And Kushner is making a pretty penny on this one….of course
He and Ivanka are buying an island (Sazan) in Albania. They need a lot of money to displace the wildlife.
So we are bombing the country that had IAEA inspectors and cameras up the you know what while giving enrichment tech to a country that won’t have any inspections and who was the source of and supported the 9/11 attacks. What an upside down world MAGA lives in.
“Saudis must recognize Israel for nuclear deal, says Trump”
“Trump Withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal, to keep Isreal safe from Iranian threat”
“Trump Brokered the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and Arabs”
…etc.
Trump the President of Israel …. with American taxpayer dollars 😂
“Nuclear weapons” were ever always only a pretext.
The goal was, is and has always been to attack any country not sufficiently slavish to Israel.
NAH. israel is just a useful idiot for us empire. the whole setup of that new entitity by the UK was a catostrophe from the start. take millions of european jews and set them up as trip wires in middle east. devious by the UK. we just took over control. i’ve had this convo with countless hasidic jews in brooklyn. they usually concur. british mandate was a scam.
I believe the US told the Saudis that they would not vote for the new state of Israel in 1948, but went and did it anyway?
the founding of israel was the culmination of plan to have the weakest and most humiliated useful idiots for the British Empire in the middle of sea of oil……….
Saddam would have been delighted to be an American ally. The US had no beef with Syria, but for Israel. For that matter, the US pays Egypt billions to make nice with Israel and I won’t even mention the so-called “Abraham Accords”.
The 5D Chess Master sticking his middle finger in Bibi’s eye.
Good stuff…“now you get a nuke, and you get a nuke…”
Surround Israel with nukes and listen to them wail.
And F35’s to Turkey…the “oy-veying” is deafening.
One of Trump’s most toxic legacies will likely be that countries like Iran or Saudi Arabia will see the possession of nuclear weapons as a question of national survival.
MBS had such brilliant success with the Neom project, the biggest white elephant ever to stagger out into a desert and collapse, why not just hand him keys to apocalypse?
This goes back to the first Trump administration. They agreed to take $2BB in Saudi money for Kushner’s fund, in exchange for US nuclear secrets. I’ve been talking about this for 5-6 years, and it’s never gotten traction anywhere, at least not… ironically … until it’s too late. The below report is worth reading, all 50+ pages.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21014583-trump-saudi-nuclear-report-july-2019/
usa is pivoting from zion as our puppet with nukes in near asia, to saudi arabia. seems like a smart plan. zion/israel won’t last in their apartheid form to make it to their 100th jubilee. go long condos in brooklyn and miami……..
@mish your comment platform won’t evenlet me mention … Here is another attempt: James Corbett’s website
Isome combination of that and 10/7 — it did not like. Let’s see if this goes through separately.
Give Trump credit for being creative at escalating the stupidity of his actions.
There is no such thing as “too grandiose” or “too ill-conceived.”
Typical Trump – throw a turd into the toiletbowl after screwing up royally. He’s trying to save his cronies’ massive financial interests, but being so incompetent he’s once again made everything worse. He’s such an ass
He’s been planning to sell out US nuclear secrets to get himself rich since his first administration. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21014583-trump-saudi-nuclear-report-july-2019/
in 2026 nuke tech is really no secret. plenty of instruction manuals and universities teach this stuff. old tech.
Enough for it to be worth Saudi Arabia paying the US $2BB for those nuclear technologies, AND securing the right to enrich their uranium, contrary to the standard for these deals. You can say there’s nothing here, but you’re simply incorrect.
Not too many “nuclear secrets” these days.
I understand the importance of regional balance of power but this is not the way to do it. The implications are: Iran is not going to give up its nukes, Trump won’t take nukes away from Iran, and there will be no regime change.
Instead of a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia to effectively protect oil supplies, the US should simply build nuclear reactors domestically and sever oil trade ties with the Middle East. There must be something more complex such as other major countries filling the US void that keeps the US from creating one in the first place.
Israel has nuclear weapons obtained clandestinely and has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Given their constant aggression against their neighbors, ongoing genocide operations and manipulation of our government? I’d say the real threat is rather obvious…
The threat extends to massive debt, deficit spending and the fact that most Americans do not have access to affordable healthcare, higher education (without massive debt) or affordable housing.
Contrast that with the recipient of incalculable amounts of US financial aid ~ Israel.
Israel has free healthcare, free higher education, unlimited military protection.
Wake up America!
The First Amendment prohibits the sponsorship of any specific religion, yet here we are choosing sides and spending trillions to eradicate Israels neighbors and theocratic enemies.
you are smart. you know since 1953 when IKE did the coup in persia it was only about one thing. the oil and keeping it out of hands of socialists aligned with USSR. now we realize israel is too weak and hated and pivoting to use saudi as our new bitch colony in the sea of oil and geographically strategic choke point between 3 continents of africa/asia and europe. most of history is geography and resources………since beginning of time. for the deep thinkers this also happens to be true of all animal species. not just human primates.
It is not the USSR and socialists that matter. It is pure colonialism. Keep the oil in the hands of uber-wealthy Americans with a small leadership in each country cut-in to suppress the population from rising up. The program failed in Iran with the overthrow of the Shah and his security forces. That’s why Iran has been in the US crosshairs for 47 years. Nuclear proliferation in Iran is not an issue. Regime change is. The Iranians must hand over control of its oil resources to the US ultra-wealthy. They will send as many patriotic, southern white boys to die in the mountains of Iran as necessary to secure their natural right to wealth and power. And there’s enough wealth there to cut the Trump family in.
BOTH your analysis and mine is correct. i concur. i was weaned in a rich wall street family and hood. the shah was a client of my father’s, whose office was at 100 wall street. the hicks and the useful idiots in big cities are just pawns on the chess board. same as it’s always been in human history.
CORRECT. those amerikan bases in gulf were there to protect the princelings from being overthrown by their own homegrown masses or the imported slave labor from bangladesh and india…………
WW2 was all about oil.
Hitler needed Azeri, Romanian, and Russian oil (cut off from Atlantic shipping).
Japan started the war because Anglo-American navies had blockaded its access to oil.
Americans at the State level have been trying to maximize their power (as do all with access), and controlling access to oil and shipping lanes is one of the way to wield it.
Oh, look out world, because NOW Iran REALLY wants a nuke. Now they, really, really seriously want a nuke since SA has an enrichment deal.
You see, they weren’t that interested over the last several decades having spent billions pursuing nuclear capability and threatening to eliminate entire countries once they had the capability. But now that SA is permitted, a long time regional ally of the US who has never publicly announced their intention to eliminate anyone, Iran NOW is motivated.
Another ridiculous article. with Mish selecting sources and passages to support an opinion that was formed prior to anything actually happening.
No one is claiming Saudi enrichment suddenly created Iran’s nuclear ambitions; the point is that Washington destroys its own non-proliferation case by treating enrichment as intolerable in Iran but acceptable in Saudi Arabia.
And portraying Riyadh as some uniquely trustworthy ally is absurd:
Saudi Arabia may be useful to the US, but “useful” is not the same as moderate, reliable or deserving of a nuclear exception.
we are setting up SA as our new colony bitch in mideast as israel has been proven to be weak and hated and too much trouble. it’s realpolitik. seems very smart. israel won’t make it to their 100th anniversary in current apartheid form. we’ll go with muslims……..al salaam alakum
No. This is simply the price that MBS extracted from Trump for support in The War On Iran.
Another Iran-a-phobe who ignores all the evidence confirming Iran abandoned its nuclear ambitions decades ago. But, sure, all our enemies are uniquely evil and irrational and deceitful. We, the US, just want peace and puppies and sunflowers.
Dare we neologize “Mish Derangement Syndrome?”
Iran has known for years that Trump was whoring the USA to Saudi Arabia for nuclear secrets so Trump could further enrich his clan. What are you prattling on about? You seem really triggered.
Iran has never wanted nuclear weapons. Iran has significant uranium resources and wants to power the country with nuclear power instead of having to use its oil resources. It wants to export its oil resources to increase imports to develop its country. A few notes:
There is not a single proven incident of Iranians committing an act of terrorism in the world. Nor is there an incident of the Iranian military attacking any of its neighbors outside of a previous attack on their nation.
Makes a total mockery of the US as a force for good.
To be a regional power going forward, the Saudis have decided that nuclear is a key table stake.
So bunging the Trump family a billion to enable it is cheap.
The timing is so staggeringly bad that you have to wonder if he thought that he would just squeeze in a last one before he gets a less willing Congress in January.
Difficult to see how this reduces tensions and so avoids more American lives lost.
Buddy, that ship has sailed a very long time ago.
250 years ago our framers set us up as a new empire to compete with the others. in short order we invaded spanish empire in FL and west…….the gruel that most amerikans received as history classes in HS was a cartoon.
Yes, we were expansionist, and surrounded by competitors from moment one. Britain was only one of them.
The circus is still in town
Mockery is the wrong word.
We are well beyond parody & burlesque, and have arrived at buffoonery.
Considering the US as a force for good at any time of the last 250 years is a mockery.
Anyone remember Osama bin Laden?
A Saudi national recruited, trained and financed by USA to combat Communism.
15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi nationals.
Now the U.S. is helping Saudi Arabia develop a nuclear bomb… “for peaceful purposes.” 😉
History has a remarkable sense of irony.
Wahhabi Islam with nuclear weapons. What could go wrong.
But those are our Jihadis.
From the neocon perspective, blowback is a feature, not a bug.
Peace and security means that they would be out of a job.
That was a different administration! D’oh.
This is the problem so many have. They think the US is like Russia with one President in power for life.
Who actually thinks that? Can you be more precise than “so many people?”
EVERYONE who talks about what some Administration other than the current did, as if there is continuity in thought or approach.
There isn’t, which SHOULD be obvious to thinking people. Yet it isn’t. Which would seem to indicate that the vast majority are not thinking people.
You’re actually making the case for not helping the Saudis go nuclear. We may get along with MBS now (he’s our kind of murderer), but who knows which Salafi will be in charge in 5, 10 or 20 years? Remember that we once had Iran in our pocket with the Shah in charge.
I agree. I don’t see any reason why SA should need to be allowed to enrich uranium. If they want nuclear power, a number of companies can construct plants for them and the US can provide the uranium they need to run the plant(s).
Iran’s nuclear program was kick-started while the Shah was in power.
The US has always been partial to autocratic dictatorial regimes.
This is likely going to kill a nuclear deal with Iran. But it doesn’t mean that Iran will immediately start building a nuclear weapon. It will just keep all options on the table.
If nuclear deal with Iran is out of reach what remains? Open ended low intensity/many truces war. Mowing the lawn as Israel likes to say.
Who comes next after Saudi Arabia? UAE?
Is Saudi nuclear deal the price Trump has to pay if the US wants to stay in Persian Gulf?
Will Israel be happy if Saudies start playing with enrinched uranium? I doubt it.
The future of the Iranian Regime and any nuclear plan’s is wide open to question.
AND
The United States never had the slightest interest in any nuclear deal, as there is no agreement Iran can make that will satisfy Israel.
If I were the Saudis I would keep in mind promising and delivering are two different things. If he wanted to insure Iran goes nuclear fast he just gave em another great reason.
Israel is gonna be pissing blood. I guess Trump did not get the message when Bibi gave him the golden pager
With Pakistan not coming to the aid of Saudi Arabia even though they have a defense agreement, any nuclear shield they agreed to becomes circumspect. Thus, the kingdom needs its own enrichment to counter Iran’s.
Since there are Pakistani troops and air force in Saudi now, you are full of it.
That’s why Iran needs nukes – to counter Israel’s.
Just as soon as Saudi Arabia gets the bomb, the dictatorship of royals gets overthrown by committed Sunni’s. Sunnis are more into suicide bombing than Shia (to wit, Iran).
I listened to reporting on this today but so far, have not been able to learn WHY the Saudis want to do enrichment of uranium. Why do they want to do this? Has a limit on the percentage of enrichment or the amount of uranium that they can enrich been put in place?
SA can’t seriously want to build a nuclear weapon! Nothing good can come of this. It doesn’t give any real protection to have just a few nukes and it attracts attention that most countries don’t want or need.
Lack of IAEA inspections is another serious problem.
Maybe this is some kind of “we’re big dicks also” to Pakistan and Iran?
Of course, with Trump, there is always the question about what is in this for him. Qatar gave him a $300 million jet. What is SA offering?
More info needed!
It’s all about selling US Nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. American reactors require enriched fuel (3-5% up to 19%). Canadian reactors on the other hand do not require enriched fuel (0.7%) to operate.
So to sell US technology the US must sign off on Saudi Arabia enriching fuel even though that enrichment process could lead to them getting material for a bomb.
US Nuclear tech has always been about making bombs, the peaceful side of energy is just a useful side affect. Canadian tech on the other hand has always been about energy only.
Only Canadian tech should be sold to these types of countries.
That’s more information that I heard on at least 3 different news channels Wednesday!
Thankfully, fusion throws all this out the window. Just a few years away from the first commercial plant now!
How will all these wannbe minor countries justify obtaining enriched uranium then?
Fusion has been a few years away for decades now 😂
Just like the Iranian Nuke being 2 weeks away for decades now 🙂
They’re even more two weeks away than they were 15 years ago!
I’ll look forward for you returning here in a couple of years to offer your mea culpas for being stupid and repeating stupid statements.
Do you have any investment plays ?
Diversify in addition to your long-term AI cash-flow bonanza ?
Why would I share with you???
Great report from 2019 talking about established efforts by Trump admin to swap cash for US nuclear secrets with Saudis. If you need more info, it’s right here.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21014583-trump-saudi-nuclear-report-july-2019/
To power some Kingdom-sized air conditioners.
Taco is expecting more very expensive gifts from the Saudis as he doesn’t do anything unless he receives valuable compensation in exchange.
Iran just needs to up their bribe.
How much did the Saudis give Trump??
They told him how awesome he is, and how much they all admire him.
I am sure they sucked on his Taco….lol
$2BB in his first admin (to Kushner’s fund)
As a member of the NPT, Saudi Arabia has the right to enrich uranium and must allow inspections by IAEA.
As a member of the NPT, so does Iran.
Yet they refused. Laws/rules w/o enforcement capability are meaningless.
Iran had allowed inspectors until the US reneged on its deal in 2018. Israel, on the other hand, stole the technology and nuclear material from its largest benefactor (the US), and refuses inspections and NPT obligations to this day. Today, our ambassador meets with the Israel spy that duped us. Are you American Jojo?
Take care of the beam in your own eye before criticizing the splinter in the other’s eye.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right”
Iran has not only been in full compliance with IAEA inspections, it acceded to the additional protocols, and beyond that, to all kinds of American inspections not based on any international law or agency.
Quit listening to Pompeo and people who lie & cheat for a living.
And it wasn’t my fault that I worked for a number of mismanaged companies and wound up losing my job because of the mismanagement.
The past is past. Move on.