President Donald Trump said on July 24, 2026 that Saudi Arabia should normalise ties with Israel — meaning the two countries would formally establish diplomatic relations, as several other Arab nations did in 2020 under agreements called the Abraham Accords. Trump tied this demand to a new nuclear cooperation deal that the United States and Saudi Arabia had signed two days earlier, on July 22.

Asked by a reporter on Friday, Trump repeated his demand that Saudi Arabia join the Abraham Accords as a requirement for the nuclear agreement. The Times of Israel reported that Trump also said normalisation "will occur at some point" (Times of Israel). Al Jazeera published its account of the remarks the same day (Al Jazeera).

The events played out over three days. On July 22, the United States and Saudi Arabia signed a deal to cooperate on civilian nuclear energy. On July 23, Trump said on social media that Saudi Arabia would also have to normalise relations with Israel for the deal to go through. On July 24, he confirmed that position when a reporter asked him about it.

Trump also addressed a key safety concern. He said on July 24 that "there will be no enrichment of material" in the Saudi nuclear arrangement. Enrichment is the process that can produce fuel for nuclear power plants but also, at higher levels, material for nuclear weapons. By ruling it out, Trump is saying Saudi Arabia would not be allowed to enrich uranium itself. The deal is expected to last 30 years and will be submitted to Congress for review, according to Al Jazeera's reporting.

A gap in the process emerged as well. Trump said on July 24 that he did not discuss the Israel normalisation condition with Energy Secretary Chris Wright before the nuclear deal was signed. The White House website, as of July 21, carried no statement or press release related to Saudi Arabia, Israel normalisation, or the nuclear deal on its first page. The most recent item listed there was dated July 21, one day before the signing.

Saudi Arabia had not responded to Trump's July 24 statement as of the Al Jazeera article's publication. The Al Jazeera report did not specify the format of Trump's Friday remarks, describing the exchange only as Trump being "asked on Friday."

The broader context here helps explain why this matters. Saudi Arabia has long said it would only normalise relations with Israel if there is real progress toward creating a Palestinian state — a position the country held before Trump's current proposal. By linking the nuclear deal to Israel normalisation, the administration has joined two issues that Saudi Arabia has previously treated as separate. The nuclear deal's 30-year lifespan and its requirement for congressional review give it weight that would outlast Trump's time in office.

The no-enrichment commitment matters because Saudi Arabia has previously indicated it wants to keep the option to enrich uranium, partly as a safeguard against Iran's nuclear program. If the commitment is enforced through the deal's terms and inspections by the IAEA — the international watchdog that monitors nuclear facilities — it would match the strictest standard the United States seeks in nuclear cooperation agreements.

The fact that Trump did not coordinate the normalisation condition with Energy Secretary Wright before signing raises questions about how the decision was made. The Energy Department normally leads negotiations on nuclear cooperation agreements. A foreign-policy requirement coming from the White House without that consultation suggests either a planned strategy or a last-minute decision that could make congressional review more complicated.

For Congress, the situation is unusual. Lawmakers will now review an agreement that the president himself has called conditional on a diplomatic goal that has not been reached. Members of Congress who might otherwise support a nuclear cooperation deal on its own merits will have to consider whether voting yes also means endorsing the link to Israel normalisation. Saudi Arabia's silence adds to the uncertainty, since Riyadh has neither accepted nor rejected the condition publicly.

Because the agreement would last 30 years, whatever Congress approves would shape US-Saudi nuclear cooperation into the 2050s. If the normalisation condition survives congressional review unchanged, it would set a precedent for tying future nuclear deals to unrelated diplomatic goals — changing how the United States uses nuclear cooperation as a tool of foreign policy.