President Joe Biden’s administration is trying to finalize a “complicated” agreement to establish diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel and shore up U.S. security ties with the Gulf Arab state as a hedge against China's encroachment in the Middle East.
“It’s complicated, and to land all of these different pieces, it takes a tremendous amount of work,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday during an MSNBC broadcast. “We’re in the middle of it. It’s still a challenge.”That agreement offers the hope of a watershed change in Israel’s relations with the Arab world, with the added potential to enhance security coordination between two traditional U.S. allies in the Middle East.
“If they get one, we have to get one,” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Fox News in an interview that aired Wednesday evening. Israel and Saudi Arabia both fear the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran, but the crown prince’s frank declaration likewise stoked alarm in Jerusalem. Riyadh reportedly wants to establish a uranium enrichment capacity in Saudi Arabia — a technological capability that has civil uses but would be a precondition for any successful nuclear weapons development program.
“Who Saudi Arabia chooses depends on what the country wants geopolitically, and there is only one person who can likely answer that question,” Center for Strategic and International Studies senior fellow Jane Nakano observed in early September. “A nuclear power project is a multi-decadal endeavor — including construction, fuel provision, and maintenance — that generally strengthens bilateral ties.
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