WASHINGTON — The Trump administration plans to submit to Congress a pact with Saudi Arabia to share nuclear power technology that does not include the safeguards the US has long said would stop materials from being used in nuclear weapons programs, sources said Wednesday.

The emerging deal also reportedly does not condition such a move on normalization with Israel, a demand Washington made in the past. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli government, but a minister said Israel would work to oppose the deal, and two former defense ministers slammed the reports, saying it would lead to an unchecked nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

The sources said the administration would submit to Congress within days a document known as a 123 Agreement that will be signed by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman.

The two signed a preliminary agreement in Riyadh last year.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, US President Donald Trump has formally approved the agreement, which could potentially pave the way for Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium. Other outlets also said Trump has approved the deal.

The newspaper and the New York Times both noted that unlike his predecessor Joe Biden, Trump was not conditioning US-Saudi nuclear cooperation on the kingdom normalizing ties with Israel.

The Biden administration had sought to include a civil nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia as part of a larger deal that would see the kingdom normalize relations with Israel.

However, the prospect of Israeli-Saudi normalization has appeared increasingly unlikely amid the war against Hamas in Gaza and Israel’s rejection of Palestinian statehood, a key Saudi demand.

The White House and US Department of Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

There was immediate pushback from lawmakers in Israel.

Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party told the Kan public broadcaster that Israel will act to prevent the deal going ahead, saying it could not be guaranteed that Saudi Arabia would not become hostile in the future.

“We will do as much as we can, in the international arena, and in our foreign policy, to halt the possibility that in the Middle East a certain country — because we can’t rely on it for the long term — has a nuclear weapon.”

He said that though “Saudi Arabia today is in a good direction, tomorrow it could reverse on us.”

Opposition lawmaker Avigor Liberman, a former........

© The Times of Israel