Congress asks the Trump administration to brief it on nuclear energy talks with the Saudi regime

Washington-Sana

The US Congress has called on the Donald Trump administration and the Department of State and Energy to report regularly to relevant congressional committees on talks related to cooperation with the Saudi regime in the nuclear energy field.

Reuters quoted the Government Accountability Office in Congress as saying in a report issued yesterday that Congress should consider amending the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 in order to provide for submitting statements before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on negotiations regarding nuclear energy.

Lawmakers are concerned about nonproliferation issues related to the development of nuclear energy and complained about not being acquainted with the talks between the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia, which former Energy Minister Rick Perry led many of them, as the agency indicated that this year Saudi Arabia may launch a bid to build two nuclear power reactors and will be its first commercial reactors.

The Atomic Energy Act obliges the State Department to keep Congress fully informed of the latest developments in the talks, but the Government Accountability Office concluded that it was "not clear" whether the ministry had done so, stating that "Congressional staff provided us with examples of finding information about negotiations from Other sources such as newspaper articles.

Some US lawmakers want the United States to insist that Saudi Arabia agree to the so-called "gold standard" that restricts enrichment and reprocessing, two possible pathways to making the fissile material needed for nuclear weapons.

Democratic Senator Robert Menendez and Republican Marco Rubio asked the office last year to review US negotiations with Saudi Arabia on nuclear energy and said they would study the legislative changes recommended by the office.

They added, "Congress should reaffirm its critical role in reviewing nuclear cooperation agreements to ensure that these agreements do not constitute an unnecessary threat to the United States."