WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA-08), alongside Senators Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA-08), published an op-ed in MS NOW warning that the Trump administration’s proposed nuclear cooperation deal with Saudi Arabia threatens to ignite a nuclear arms race across the Middle East.
The four lawmakers, who co-chair the bicameral Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, write that the deal would allow Saudi Arabia to produce its own weapons-grade uranium and plutonium without requiring the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Additional Protocol, the strongest international inspection standard.
Garamendi, Markey, Merkley, and Beyer also note Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s reversal from his position as a senator, when he called for the United States to suspend nuclear negotiations with Saudi Arabia unless the kingdom accepted “gold standard” restrictions. The lawmakers call on Congress to reject any agreement that gives Saudi Arabia access to sensitive nuclear technologies without the strongest possible safeguards.
Read the full op-ed HERE. See key excerpts below:
On Secretary Rubio abandoning his previous position:
“There was a time when Marco Rubio understood that handing Saudi Arabia the technology to produce nuclear weapons was a terrible idea.
“As a U.S. senator during President Donald Trump’s first term — serving alongside two of us — Rubio declared that America should ‘suspend all talks’ with Saudi Arabia on a nuclear agreement until the kingdom accepted what nuclear nonproliferation experts consider ‘gold standard’ provisions: a commitment to forgo producing weapons-grade uranium or plutonium, backed by the toughest international inspections.
“He was right. In fact, in 2019 then-Sen. Rubio and Sen. Ed Markey introduced bipartisan legislation requiring those protections. In the years since, Markey and Sen. Jeff Merkley reintroduced that legislation in the Senate, and all four of us have worked to advance those principles.
“Meanwhile, Rubio became secretary of state — and he apparently abandoned those principles, helping Trump pursue one of the most reckless nuclear deals in U.S. history.”
On the agreement’s dangerous lack of nuclear safeguards:
“This deal is the starting gun for a Middle East nuclear arms race. Congress must reject it.
“The deal reportedly allows Saudi Arabia to produce weapons-grade uranium and plutonium — the essential ingredients for nuclear weapons. Yet it does not require the agreement to include the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Additional Protocol, the strongest international inspection standard.
“If the president were serious about preventing Saudi Arabia from acquiring nuclear weapons, he would insist on the gold standard. If Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman truly had no interest in a bomb, he would gladly accept it.
“Neither is happening.
“Instead, Trump is giving Saudi Arabia what it wants while demanding almost nothing in return.”
On corruption benefiting Trump’s family and political allies:
“Maybe we should ask Jared Kushner, who accepted a $2 billion investment from a Saudi sovereign wealth fund after leaving the White House at the end of the first Trump administration. Maybe we should ask Westinghouse Electric, which stands to make tens of billions of dollars if this agreement moves forward.
“There is no evidence at this point that Mr. Trump’s friends or family helped orchestrate the Saudi nuclear deal,’ the Times noted. But the pattern is painfully familiar: Another Trump initiative hurts America’s national security while benefiting the financial interests of his family and political allies.
“That is corruption dressed up as diplomacy.”
On the risk of a regional nuclear arms race:
“The consequences of this nonproliferation failure will not stop with Saudi Arabia. If Riyadh gains the capability to produce bomb fuel, why would, say, Egypt stand aside? Why would Turkey, or any other country in the region? The result will be an intensifying nuclear competition in a region currently on the verge of a wider war.
“Trump launched that unwinnable war against Iran claiming it was necessary to stop Tehran from enriching uranium. Yet his administration is now preparing to give Saudi Arabia access to the very technologies it says Iran must never possess. That contradiction doesn’t make America stronger. It makes American policy impossible to take seriously and undermines any chance of reaching a durable agreement with Iran.”
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