Rubio assures new US-Saudi nuclear deal will have safeguards

A newly approved deal that could lead Saudi Arabia to enrich its own fuel for civilian nuclear reactors has raised some concerns among observers, but US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday assured the US-backed deal would have safeguards in place.

“When countries decide that they want to pursue a peaceful, civil nuclear program, we’d prefer them do it with us, rather than do it with some other country. It allows us to have influence over the direction that it goes.” Rubio told reporters from the ASEAN summit in Manila.

Rubio stressed that Riyadh was a “strategic partner” and that the agreement made sense.

“Suffice it to say that any agreement that we’re going to make with any country in the world on civil nuclear energy is going to be one that will have safeguards in place to ensure that it can’t be turned into a weapons program, and one of the best safeguards is to make sure that American technology and American companies are the ones that are involved in doing it,” he said.

The agreement, which was approved by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, will next go to Congress for a mandatory review.

-CNN