Eric Watkins
Oil Diplomacy Editor
The US Department of Energy last week sent a delegation to Saudi Arabia to learn more about Riyadh's plans for nuclear energy. Yes, even the world's largest producer of oil is going nuclear (OGJ, Jan. 31, 2011).
"We have offered to send a team to discuss with Saudi officials the kinds of nuclear activities that would be allowed" under a memorandum of understanding signed by Washington and Riyadh in 2008, said a senior US official.
The Obama administration hasn't entered into formal negotiations with Saudi Arabia about nuclear cooperation, the US official said, adding that Washington wants to gain a better understanding of Saudi plans and intentions.
Hardly had the delegation been announced than one US politician expressed surprise at the possible cooperation between the US and Saudi Arabia on nuclear issues. "I am astonished that the Administration is even considering a nuclear-cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia," said Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.), chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
‘Unstable country'
"Saudi Arabia is an unstable country in an unstable region, with senior officials openly proclaiming that the country may pursue a nuclear-weapons capability," said Ros-Lehtinen.
Need one comment on ignorance here? Did this Congresswoman make the same remarks under the Bush Administration when the MOU was signed between the two countries?
Ros-Lehtinen was certainly around then, representing Florida's 18th congressional district, serving since 1989 and a member of the Republican Party.
She is the senior Republican woman in the US House, and was the first Republican woman elected to the House of Representatives from Florida. She is chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, effective 2011. Let's not forget, that the Congressional Research Service last year released a report entitled "Saudi Arabia: Background and US Relations" in which Saudi nuclear ambitions were discussed at length.
Alternate energy
The report says Riyadh signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Civil Nuclear Energy Cooperation with the US in 2008, signaling its intent to "forego domestic uranium enrichment or fuel reprocessing in favor of procuring nuclear fuel from market sources."
Riyadh launched the King Abdullah City for Nuclear and Renewable Energy in April 2010 to oversee the country's planned development of nuclear energy production and meet rising domestic consumption needs, it said.
"Like other oil exporting states in the region, Saudi Arabia has signaled its intention to develop alternative energy generation methods to preserve its oil resources as an export revenue source," the report states. Saud Arabia is an unstable country? Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen alarmingly has little understanding of the world's greatest oil-producing country or any sense at all of its stabilizing influence within the region or around the globe.
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