Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman manages the impossible: uniting Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress. Last week, the Senate and House of Representatives voted for a resolution calling for an end to military support for the Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen.

  • The resolution is a response to allegations by human rights groups that the Saudi Arabian military does not pay enough attention to civilians in its attacks in Yemen.
  • On the other hand, he is in retaliation for the murder of "Washington Post" columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in early October.

Donald Trump is likely to override the resolution in the coming weeks with a veto - but already delegates of both US parties are targeting another controversial aspect of cooperation between Washington and Riyadh.

On Wednesday, Senators led by Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Tim Kaine tabled a bill to force the US government to disclose the extent of nuclear technology cooperation between the US and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia will become a nuclear emerging nation

The current trigger was a report by "Bloomberg": with the help of nuclear experts and satellite images, the portal showed that construction on Saudi Arabia's first nuclear reactor is well advanced. The plant could be operational within a year, estimated Robert Kelley, former inspector of the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA.

The plant in the northwest of Riyadh is a research reactor whose primary goal is to train nuclear engineers. Nevertheless , Saudi Arabia will become a nuclear emerging nation. The kingdom will have the opportunity to enrich uranium and / or plutonium - an important step in the development of nuclear weapons. The problem:

  • There is currently no assurance that IAEA inspectors may effectively control the reactor after commissioning.
  • It is true that Saudi Arabia ratified the Non-Proliferation Treaty decades ago.
  • But the kingdom opened a back door.
  • In 2005, the country signed an additional protocol to the treaty that applies to states with "negligible amounts of nuclear material".
  • As a result, Saudi Arabia is currently exempted from regular IAEA inspections.

Meanwhile, the IAEA has significantly tightened the Additional Protocol, but the Saudis have refused to allow changes so far. "Saudi Arabia was the last country to sign the old Additional Protocol and they never agreed to adjust or cancel it," warns former IAEA official Laura Rockwood in the Guardian.

This is particularly explosive against the background of a statement by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: "Saudi Arabia does not want to have an atomic bomb, but no doubt, if Iran builds a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible," said the heir to the throne a year ago. That would be a blatant breach of the NPT.

Is Saudi Arabia allowed to do what Iran can not do?

The US government does not dispute this: while Trump unilaterally canceled the nuclear deal with Iran, which provided for the world's most stringent controls by the IAEA, the US Department of Energy has seven permits for the transmission of sensitive information on nuclear energy to the regime in Saudi Arabia granted - without inspections being guaranteed in the Kingdom.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry have consistently refused to provide information on which US companies are involved in the transfer of knowledge and which permits have been granted. Rubio, Kaine and other senators now want to enforce this transparency by law.

REUTERS

Crown Prince MbS, Trump, Kushner: "What are they hiding?"

Critics say Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is considered to be a close friend of Mohammed bin Salman, behind the permits to Saudi Arabia: "If Jared Kushner and Donald Trump can transfer seven times nuclear technology to the Saudis and they do not even detail the congressmen reveal the highest levels of secrecy in specially protected areas - what are they hiding? "asked Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman in an interview with the Guardian.

Race for atomic orders from Saudi Arabia

A report from the Financial Supervision Committee in the House of Representatives this February supports Sherman's assessment. According to informants from government circles, the paper states that besides Kushner, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and Trump's confidant Tom Barrack have also promoted nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia.

The US is in a race with companies from Russia, South Korea and China. They are all feeling the big business, because the kingdom wants to build a total of 16 nuclear power plants in the next few years. Next year, the construction of the first two kilns to start - who receives the contract, is still open.

Sherman and other congressmen demand that Saudi Arabia must in any case meet the so-called gold standard for collateral agreements with the IAEA before the United States is allowed to sell nuclear technology to Riyadh. This means: Comprehensive IAEA inspections to ensure that Saudi Arabia neither enriches uranium nor reprocesses plutonium.