Trump's Saudi Nuclear Deal Fiasco May Finally Push Ally to China and Russia
www.newsweek.com

... President Donald Trump's decision to impose a heavy post-deal condition on a landmark agreement that would see the United States support Saudi Arabia in establishing a civilian nuclear program has threatened to tank the deal and push the longtime U.S. partner to explore separate arrangements with China and Russia.

Trump's declaration Thursday that the U.S.-Saudi agreement could only proceed if the Kingdom were to join the Abraham Accords, effectively normalizing ties with Israel, came less than 24 hours after both nations announced the deal.

The new clause, later reinforced by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, is widely viewed as a non-starter within Saudi Arabia, which has consistently held that diplomatic relations with Israel would be explicitly contingent on a roadmap for Palestinian statehood.

"Any normalization must be preceded by recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the Saudi initiative approved by the Arab Summit in Beirut," Mohammed al-Sabban, a former senior adviser to the Saudi minister of energy, told Newsweek. ...