The Trump administration
is pursuing a deal to sell nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia despite
proliferation risk, underscoring that Washington is willing to
compromise any type of universal agreement, says an American writer and
academic.
"The Unites States is interested in selling things. The oligarchs
have an interest in the big corporations like Westinghouse which sell
nuclear reactors. They even have interest selling these things all over
the world without any regard to other principles,” said E. Michael
Jones, the current editor of Culture Wars, an online news magazine.
“In order for the United States to claim some type of universal right
to rule the world, it has to claim that it is based on some type of set
of universal principles. Well, this proves that this claim is nothing
but pure hypocrisy," Jones said in a phone interview with Press TV on
Wednesday.
"The Unites States is willing to do business, it wants to make money.
It is willing to compromise any type of universal agreement if it is
willing to make money and if the big players who are involved will
profit from it. So in this instance, it means complete rejection of
principles that they try to impose on Iran, which they did impose on
Iran as part of their nuclear agreement," Jones noted.
US Senator Ed Markey on Tuesday expressed concern over the Trump
administration's efforts to sign a nuclear cooperation deal with Saudi
Arabia for the construction of nuclear reactors.
Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts and a member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, said any nuclear deal with Riyadh must
require a non-proliferation accord, known as a "123 agreement," which is
designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
The talks were frozen under the administration of former President
Barack Obama after the Saudis refused to accept the “gold standard” for
civil nuclear cooperation deals.
The Trump administration has resumed the talks and is reportedly
considering a deal that would allow Riyadh to enrich and reprocess
uranium and pave the way for American companies to build nuclear
reactors in the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia is expected to announce early in March its list of companies which will bid to build its reactors.
Besides the American firm Westinghouse Electric Co., companies from
Russia, France, China and South Korea have also shown an interest to
bid.
Perry's meeting with Saudi Arabian Minister of Energy and Industry
Khalid Bin Abdulaziz Al-Falih in London will be a crucial stage in the
negotiations, which have reportedly been ongoing for months.
Analysts say the US may be ready to give up the “gold standard” in an
attempt to prevent the profitable agreement from going to other
potential contractors, including Russia and China.
