US Congress Receives Intelligence Assessment That Saudi Arabia Has Not Ruled Out Nuclear Weapons Program

Classified documents provided to Congress last month include a US intelligence community assessment that Saudi Arabia has not ruled out developing nuclear weapons, according to US officials who spoke to The Washington Post 1. The assessment accompanies review of a US-Saudi civilian nuclear cooperation agreement that would let American companies pursue tens of billions of dollars in nuclear energy projects and could eventually permit Saudi uranium enrichment up to 20 percent, still below weapons grade 23. A group of Democratic senators led by Ed Markey and Jeff Merkley wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the deal's terms are "all but certain to allow Riyadh to acquire the means to enrich uranium" and potentially develop a bomb 24. The State Department's own assessment, submitted alongside the intelligence community's, was described by officials as more confident in the agreement's safeguards 23. The department told the Post the US "does not and will not support a Saudi nuclear weapon program" 2. Congress is in the midst of a 90-day review period during which lawmakers could seek to block the agreement 23.