U.S. Senate expected to vote before December 13 on Trump’s nuclear pact with Saudi Arabia

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote before December 13 on the Trump administration’s pact to share nuclear energy technology with Saudi Arabia, Democratic senators announced on Friday, according to Reuters.

Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, said he had worked together with four other Democratic colleagues to secure the vote in the upper chamber of Congress, which he described as an opportunity for the Senate to fulfill its legal duty to carefully examine the consequences of the agreement.

“The Senate will now have a chance to fulfill its statutory responsibility to study and express its view on the impact this agreement could have in fueling a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and in undermining nuclear non-proliferation efforts around the world,” Merkley said.

The pact is a civil nuclear cooperation agreement (a so-called “123 Agreement”), through which the United States would sell Saudi Arabia technology for producing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Democrats have raised concerns that the deal could open the way to the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, a region already troubled by geopolitical rivalries.

The Trump administration sees the pact as a strategic energy and economic agreement with Riyadh, while critics are demanding strong guarantees that the nuclear material and technology will not be used for military purposes. The expected Senate vote will be the first major legislative test of this controversial agreement.