Iran Press/America: "We will never write a $150 billion check to the Saudis and hand them over the capacity to threaten Israel and the United States with nuclear weapons. Never", US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview with CBS News.
The $150 billion figure is a reference to the Iran nuclear agreement negotiated by the administration of President Barack Obama.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has alleged that the Iran nuclear agreement, which provided sanctions relief in return for Iran's pledge to keep its nuclear program peaceful, has cost US taxpayers as much as $150 billion.
Earlier this week, satellite images revealed that Saudi Arabia is nearing the completion of its first nuclear reactor.
At the same time, US Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Fernandez urged Energy Secretary Rick Perry in a letter on 2 April not to supply any nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia given Riyadh’s troubling record, which includes the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The United States lacks any framework pact, or "123 Agreement" for any bilateral nuclear cooperation with Saudi Arabia, yet the Energy Department has already approved multiple licenses for US companies to sell nuclear energy technologies, Rubio and Fernandez said.
In May 2018, US President Donald Trump withdrew from 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and re-imposed the sanctions that had been lifted under the accord.
The US move has been slammed by the remaining parties to the nuclear agreement — Iran, China, Russia, France, Germany, the UK, and the European Union — who insist that Iran is honouring the deal.
Washington reinstated a series of unilateral sanctions against Iran in early August and re-imposed a second batch in November 2018, with the stated goal of reducing Iran's oil exports to zero.
In order to neutralize oil market shock and stop rising oil prices, Washington granted waivers to eight buyers of Iran's oil when the sanctions came into effect in November 2018. The waivers are valid for up to 180 days.
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