Australia, EU and U.S. Pressure Saudi Arabia on Key Nuclear Protocol, IAEA Inspections

The United States, the European Union and Australia are urging Saudi Arabia to allow nuclear inspections, despite Riyadh’s desire to sign an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency that would limit such oversight, the Associated Press reported Friday (see GSN, June 2).

The EU and Australia were expected to send formal diplomatic notes to Riyadh last weekend requesting that it allow IAEA inspectors to view any nuclear equipment or materials held by Saudi Arabia, diplomats and European officials told AP. 

A U.S. diplomatic note had already been delivered, said State Department press officer Tom Casey. In the letter, Washington asked Riyadh to permit inspections “on a voluntary basis,” he said.

Senior Saudi foreign policy adviser Adel al-Jubeir last week told AP that Riyadh has “no desire to acquire any type of weapon of mass destruction, period.” There was no comment Friday from the Saudi mission to the U.N. nuclear watchdog (George Jahn, Associated Press/Washington Post, June 10).

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia indicated yesterday that it still wanted to sign a protocol that could limit such inspections, Agence France-Presse reported.

“The kingdom wishes to stress its constant desire to cooperate with the IAEA and its commitment to relevant international conventions” including “the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and related agreements, such as the Small Quantities Protocol,” a Foreign Ministry source told the state SPA news agency. 

The Small Quantities Protocol allows Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty member states to forgo reporting possession of up to 10 tons of natural uranium and 2.2 pounds of plutonium.  The rule also allows new nuclear facilities to be kept secret until six months prior to operation.

Dutch officials are expected to discuss the issue in Riyadh on behalf of the European Union, said a European diplomat.

“The request is for Saudi Arabia to go ahead and sign a comprehensive safeguards agreement with the IAEA but not to sign the Small Quantities Protocol,” the diplomat said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 12).

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