'Don't need uranium, will buy a bomb': Before Pakistan, Saudis negotiated defence pact with US

Before turning to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia had been negotiating a defence agreement with the United States. Talks went on even after Israel's military operations in Gaza, but eventually collapsed. 

Author and journalist Bob Woodward - in his recent book, War - has given a detailed account of Washington's efforts to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia - a move aimed at changing the power balance in the Middle East and further isolating Iran.  

In January 2024, then US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was making frantic trips to some Middle Eastern countries to ensure the conflict that began after October 7 didn't explode, travelled to Riyadh and asked Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) directly: "Do you want to pursue normalisation?"

"Not only do I want to pursue it, but I want to pursue it with urgency," MBS said. "I think we need to try to get this done in the next few months because then you will be into your election season. It's going to be hard for you to do anything then."          

The US was also getting closer and closer to finalising its own agreements with the Saudis on defence cooperation, Woodward writes in War. "The (proposed) defence cooperation agreement was short of NATO Article 5 protection but similar to the defence agreements the US had with Japan, Australia, and South Korea," he writes. "It promised if Saudi Arabia were attacked, the US would come to its defence."  

Washington was pushing for normalisation of the Israel-Saudi relations and defence pact at the same time. In March 2024, then Republican Senator Lindsey Graham pressed MBS on talks of normalisation treaty with Israel. "If you want to recognise Israel, you have got to do it on Biden's watch," Graham told Crown Prince. "There is no way you are going to get Democrats to vote for a defence agreement to go to war with Saudi Arabia introduced by Donald Trump."

According to War, the carrot Washington continued to dangle before the Crown Prince was the prospect of a serious bilateral defence cooperation agreement with the US. It would mean that if Saudi Arabia was attacked, the US would come to its defence. "It's a big f***ing deal," Graham told MBS. "It's an insurance policy against Iran. It's a checkmate against Iran."

However, Woodward notes, the Crown Prince pointed to the anger on his streets at the situation in Gaza. "He could not possibly sign the treaty with Israel unless there was some commitment to march toward a Palestinian state over the arc of time. But after October 7, Graham knew that Netanyahu and Israeli society had only hardened more firmly against the idea of a two-state solution."

MBS said he still wanted to enrich the uranium in Saudi Arabia to diversify his energy sector to include nuclear power. "Well, that's going to be hard to do because people are afraid you’ll create a bomb," Graham said. To which, the Crown Prince responded: "I don't need uranium to make a bomb. I'll just buy one from Pakistan."

That's precisely how it appeared to many when Riyadh signed a NATO-like pact with Islamabad in September.

Washington was very close to signing the defence pact in the fall of 2023. During one of his visits to the Middle East in the early fall of that year, Graham called President Joe Biden and said: "We're good to go." They were on the "five-yard line" of the defence agreement and working on hashing out the precise language of the civil nuclear deal, writes Woodward.

A quiet negotiation was scheduled between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a Saudi ambassador in Tel Aviv in November 2023. But a month before what would be a historic moment, Hamas struck Israel. "The Hamas attack and Israel's military operations in Gaza had set back all real prospects of a historic peace treaty."

In March of 2024, Graham, after his latest meeting with MBS, told Blinken and US NSA Jake Sullivan: "The only way you can do this is to get a cease-fire. And during that cease-fire, close the deal."

That cease-fire never came, and Riyadh bought the nuclear insurance cover from Islamabad.