Over the weekend, President Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, visited Riyadh to finalize a deal to secure Saudi Arabia‘s recognition of Israel. The negotiations included discussions over a nuclear cooperative agreement with the United States to incentivize Saudi normalization of relations with Israel. The agreement would allow the Saudi kingdom to enrich uranium— a process that has enabled Iran to get within days of making nuclear weapons.

As Andrea Stricker from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and I made clear in the attached opinion piece posted by The Hill, allowing Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium on its soil is risky business. The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, has repeatedly warned that he will violate the Kingdom’s legal obligation under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty not to acquire nuclear weapons if he believes Iran has them. Allowing him to enrich uranium on his soil, no matter what the “safeguards” are, is a surefire way to repeat what occurred in Iran. More important, it will goad Saudi Arabia’s neighbors that already have nuclear cooperative agreements with Washington (the UAE, Turkey, and Egypt) to demand similar treatment. South Korea, which has been asking Washington for more than a decade to allow them to engage in this weapons-related activity, is also sure to ask.

Five years ago, Republicans and Democrats opposed President Trump’s attempts to seal such an agreement with Riyadh. Senator Lindsey Graham and Edward Markey both demanded Saudi Arabia forswear enriching uranium or reprocessing plutonium on its soil before the United States should agree to sell it controlled nuclear energy goods. Congress got it right then. That’s why, Andrea and I argue, it needs to act now and demand the same.