Saudi Arabia Begins Talks to Ease IAEA Oversight

Saudi Arabia has begun talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency on signing the organization’s Small Quantities Protocol, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, March 7).

The protocol allows countries to forgo reporting possession of up to 10 tons of natural uranium and 2.2 pounds of plutonium. The rules also allow new nuclear facilities to be kept secret until six months prior to operation, according to AP.

Saudi Arabia has never negotiated an Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement, which allows the U.N. agency to conduct more intrusive monitoring of a country’s nuclear program. That makes its effort to negotiate the Small Quantities Protocol of greater concern, some officials said.

“As has become clear over the last several years, states can conduct nuclear activities of proliferation concern with quantities of nuclear material much smaller” than allowed under the protocol, Pierre Goldschmidt, a deputy director general at the agency, said in a February report.

Riyadh also was alleged to have helped fund nuclear weapons programs in Iraq and Pakistan, and Saudi Prince Sultan Bin Abd-al-Aziz in 1999 reportedly met with former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, according to AP. 

Saudi officials have reportedly discussed developing nuclear weapons in the past. Riyadh now says it is not seeking nuclear weapons, AP reported.

While there remains a lack of solid evidence that Saudi Arabia has been “playing around, we can never be sure,” according to a Vienna-based diplomat familiar with the issue.

“It certainly is a region of tension, and the (nuclear control) requirements should be tightened instead of eased,” said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security. “What if the security situation prompts the Saudis to rethink their (nuclear) options — or what if a (nuclear-minded) terrorist group sets up on Saudi territory?” (George Jahn, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 20).

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