Lindsey Graham: U.S.-Saudi pact must include Israeli normalization or it’s a no-go

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) issued a stark warning last night (Thursday) in response to reports that the Trump administration may drop the requirement for Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel as part of a broader security and nuclear agreement.

“I have been working on and supportive of normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel for years,” Graham wrote on X. “This historic agreement would effectively end the Arab-Israeli conflict and allow the region to march toward the light and away from darkness, building on the historic Abraham Accords.”

The senator added emphatically, “However, I would like to make it crystal clear that I will never support a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia or other elements of a proposed deal that does not include normalizing the relationship with Israel as a part of the package. Normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel is an essential element.”

Graham’s comments came in response to a Reuters report that the United States is reconsidering its position on linking civil nuclear cooperation with Riyadh to diplomatic normalization with Jerusalem. The shift reportedly comes as former President Donald Trump prepares for a diplomatic visit to Saudi Arabia.

Initially, U.S.-Saudi nuclear talks were part of a broader effort to secure a trilateral agreement that included a mutual defense pact and the normalization of Israeli-Saudi relations. However, Saudi Arabia has held firm in its insistence that it will not formalize ties with Israel without meaningful progress toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, a position that has gained greater political weight amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

Meanwhile, negotiations on civil nuclear cooperation remain at an impasse. A key sticking point is Saudi Arabia’s resistance to the nonproliferation terms outlined in Section 123 of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, which restricts uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing, both considered potential paths to nuclear weapons development.