The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has not officially maintained or possessed the weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In 1972, Saudi Arabia signed and ratified the Biological Weapons Convention, followed by the ratification of Chemical Weapons Convention (1996) and Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1998). Over the issue of nuclear energy, Saudi Arabia has made steps towards a peaceful nuclear program and according to some observations, the program can hypothetically be weaponized towards developing nuclear weapons. In 2018, Mohammad bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, confirmed on interview given to American CBS's 60 Minutes that Saudi Arabia would develop nuclear weapons if Iran successfully detonated one, causing widespread distrust of the Saudi Arabian nuclear program. In July 2026, the United States and Saudi Arabia finalized a 123 Agreement for Saudi Arabia to build a civilian nuclear program.
Overview The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has officially a signed party of and ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons since 1988. At the nuclear energy governance level, the Saudi government has an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Nuclear program
The Saudi interests in nuclear issue started in 2010 when it announced to start the program aim to look for generating electricity using the nuclear power and Saudi officials reached out the France, South Korea, Russia, China, and the United States to help establish the industry. The Saudi government established the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA CARE) as a government agency to oversee the program and commissioned the Pöyry PLC, a Finnish engineering consulting firm, to assist in expounding "high-level strategy in the area of nuclear and renewable energy applications" with desalination. The Saudi Arabian nuclear program received much more publicized controversy when it reached out to Pakistan in an attempt to establish a nuclear physics laboratory, which can be purposed towards understanding the nuclear weapons environment. On 17 September 2020, according to a confidential report compiled by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology (BRIUG), as seen by The Guardian, Saudi Arabia was identified to have enough uranium ore reserves to begin domestic production of nuclear fuel. Saudi Arabia was found heading as another country in the Arab region, after the United Arab Emirates, to begin its own nuclear energy program. Chinese data revealed that Saudi was capable of producing nearly 90,000 tonnes of uranium. Saudi Arabia was working with Chinese geologists to identify the uranium deposits that were located in Saudi's northwestern region, where the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was planning to build the Neom city. There were concerns, where Saudi was under suspicions of producing nuclear weapons, as it lacked transparency. Saudi Arabia followed the IAEA's Small Quantities Protocol regulations which did not allow direct inspections of Saudi nuclear facilities.
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