https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/trump-reportedly-agrees-to-provide-saudi-arabia-with-nuclear-program/

President Donald Trump formally approved an agreement to provide Saudi Arabia with a civilian nuclear enrichment program, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday night.

Citing U.S. officials familiar with the matter, the Journal reported that the arrangement, which would last 30 years, “is designed to give American companies a central role in developing Saudi Arabia’s nuclear infrastructure while shutting out other foreign competitors.”

The agreement is estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars. Under the arrangement, there is to be a U.S.-Saudi study to determine whether U.S. companies would build a uranium enrichment facility in Saudi Arabia. Trump administration officials said the U.S. would have sway over such a program and would be able to prevent it from being used for military purposes.

Congress will need to review the deal, but lawmakers who are skittish about expanding nuclear capabilities in the Middle East will need to muster a two-thirds majority to block it, the Journal said.

The president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has been negotiating with Iranian officials amid the ongoing war with their country, has close ties to the Saudi royal family. In Trump’s first term, Kushner served as a senior adviser to the president. Six months after leaving that position in 2021, Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, received a $2 billion investment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, whose advisers reportedly had doubts about the massive infusion. However, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman overruled the advisers.

It is unclear if Kushner played a role in brokering the Saudi nuclear agreement.