A bipartisan group of US lawmakers on Thursday introduced legislation to ensure congressional oversight of any civilian nuclear cooperation agreement between the US and Saudi Arabia.
Last week, Democratic lawmakers alleged in a report that top White House aides ignored warnings they could be breaking the law as they worked with former US officials and a friend of US President Donald Trump, in a group called IP3 International, to advance a multibillion-US dollar plan to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.
Under the Saudi Nuclear Proliferation Act, the US Congress would be required to approve any pacts authorizing US companies to sell nuclear power technologies to the kingdom.
The bill was introduced by US senators Edward Markey, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Republican. A similar bill was introduced in the US House of Representatives by US representatives Brad Sherman, a Democrat, and Ted Yoho, a Republican.
“A government that cannot be trusted with a bone saw, should not be trusted with a nuclear weapon,” Sherman said.
He was referring to the instrument investigators said was used to cut up the body of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after he was killed in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.
Several of Trump’s fellow Republicans have joined the Democrats in blaming Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman for Khashoggi’s death.
It was not immediately clear whether Thursday’s legislation would receive enough support to pass either chamber of Congress, but it underscored lawmakers’ concern about the nuclear issue.
US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry has had held talks with Saudi Arabian officials on a deal, but details have been scant.
The kingdom has in the past pushed for relaxing standards that could allow it to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium made in reactors — two paths to making nuclear weapons.
Saudi Arabia has said it wants nuclear power plants to diversify its energy supply, but the crown prince told CBS last year that his kingdom would develop nuclear weapons if its arch rival Iran did.
Trump met earlier this month with representatives from IP3, a consortium of US technology firms founded by retired Navy Rear Admiral Michael Hewitt, retired Army General John Keane, and former US national security adviser Robert McFarlane.
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