President Donald Trump got a verbal lashing from the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board after he rolled over to allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium with no protest from his administration.
Specifically, the board noted, Trump’s administration “signed a civilian nuclear agreement with the Saudis, winning new contracts for U.S. firms at the price of nuclear nonproliferation safeguards. The deal will now be submitted to Congress, and it will be difficult to find the two-thirds majority needed to override a Presidential veto.”
This is foolish, wrote the board — particularly in light of how committed Trump is, even without a clear strategy, to oppose Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“The stakes are high. The risk of nuclear-weapons catastrophe increases each time nuclear enrichment spreads. That’s why the bipartisan U.S. consensus has been to stop the spread of the most dangerous processes and capabilities to enemies and allies,” wrote the board. International inspections are the best way to avoid nuclear proliferation, wrote the board, “but now the Saudis have been allowed to reject the [International Atomic Energy Agency] Additional Protocol and receive U.S. support all the same.”
This is likely to have a domino effect, the board warned, with other marginal U.S. allies with authoritarian regimes, like Egypt and Turkey, wanting more nuclear proliferation freedom as well.
Ultimately, the board concluded, “The U.S. needs Arab allies, and it has much to offer oil-rich Saudi Arabia as it diversifies its economy. But the Saudis don’t need a path to a nuclear bomb to match Iran. Mr. Trump and the U.S. military have been making sure of that. Why undermine that success now?”
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