Posted on 05/16/2008 11:02:41 AM PDT by SeafoodGumbo
RIYADH (AFP) - The White House announced major new cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia on Friday as US President George W. Bush made his second visit to the oil superpower this year.
The agreements cover cooperation on civil nuclear power and protecting the kingdom's oil infrastructure which has come under attack by Islamist militants.
"The Saudis bear a special responsibility for protecting key energy facilities of global importance and the world benefits from their abundant energy supplies," a White House statement said.
"Our global economy depends greatly on Saudi Arabian energy. The United States has a keen interest in helping the Saudis protect their energy infrastructure against terrorism, as demonstrated by the unsuccessful terrorist attack against the kingdom's Abqaiq plants in February 2006," it said.
"To this end, the United States and Saudi Arabia have agreed to cooperate in safeguarding the kingdom's energy resources by protecting key infrastructure, enhancing Saudi border security, and meeting Saudi Arabia's expanding energy needs in an environmentally responsible manner."
Saudi Arabia sits on around a quarter of the world's oil reserves and is by far its biggest producer with an output of some nine million barrerls per day.
The White House said Washington and Riyadh were also to sign an agreement on nuclear cooperation that would clear the way for Saudi Arabia to receive enriched uranium for its reactors, without the need to master the fuel nuclear cycle itself as Iran has done.
"This agreement will pave the way for Saudi Arabia's access to safe, reliable fuel sources for energy reactors and demonstrate Saudi leadership as a positive non-proliferation model for the region," it said.
Washington charges that Iran's nuclear programme is cover for a drive to develop an atomic weapon, a charge denied by Tehran.
Uranium enrichment, the process which can produce for fuel for nuclear power stations -- or, in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atomic bomb -- lies at the centre of US concerns.
Please call your Senators and Reps about this, right now!
They can make this deal, but they can’t make a deal to increase oil production. Amazing.
They can make this deal, but they can’t make a deal to increase oil production. Amazing.
So, where is our $20 brl crude? On the way, right?
In his own bizzare way Michael Moore was right.
GWB is the Saudi’s beyotch
USA produces eight million barrels per day. Is one million barrels a day 'by far?'
We are all the Saudi’s Beatch.
I’ve just lost the remaining respect that I had for GWB. WTF!?!?!?!?!
If he tries to move forward with this, I say impeach him.
I fully agree and thought that at the time.
Unbelievable
???????????????????????????
Hope this gets stopped dead in its tracks in Congress.
Time to pull a Dubai Port/Harrietmeir/McCain-Kennedy Spanking again.
If he goes for this he has lost his last supporter in Florida also. If this is okay by Congress I say Impeach the whole lot of them
"This agreement will pave the way for Saudi Arabia's access to safe, reliable fuel sources for energy reactors and demonstrate Saudi leadership as a positive non-proliferation model for the region,"I thought the administration's argument against Iran's use of nuclear energy was that they didn't need it. Doesn't this same position have even MORE validity with Saudi Arabia.
It sounds to me like the United States is giving the Saudi's the technology to defend themselves with nuclear weapons.
This is the US answer to the Iranian nuke threat. Give nuclear technology to Iran’s neighbors.
Saudi’s have a long history of increasing production but announcing that they will not increase pumping. Somehting was recieved for this deal and it is probably more oil.
Nobody answers Nelsons line from florida
During the 2004 elections this is exactly what Kerry wanted to offer the Iranians if it stopped them from enriching their own uranium.
For the President to offer this it has to mean they are starting a nuclear program for enrichment to stay up with Iran, this is exactly what was feared in the M.E., and arms race.
I’m a bit lost here. The Bush administration states that Iran has no legitimate use for nuclear power because of all of the oil and natural gas that can be used for electric generation. And this is different how?
And we can agree to build nuclear reactors in the middle east, but not in the Midwest.
all yur congre$$ are belong to House of Saud
As much as I think the House of Saud are the direct descendants of Hell, we probably do need a counterweight to Iran who by 2013 could have total dominace of the region.
I’m just sayin’
I always felt that Bush was not like the other politicians. That he was bigger than all that. This past year, I’ve been so disappointed.
We should have done that a long time ago. Then maybe we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now.
Carolyn
Dumb, dumb move. This will only benefit our enemies - those who want to topple the House of Saud,
Why do some Freepers want to make enemies out of our longtime allies like the Saudis? Come on now, some of you sound like DUmmies.
"Get the bucket!"
The Israelis must just be pleased as punch...
I think by the end of 2009...most of us will awaken to realize that the Saudis have the nuke...and probably have had it for three or four years. As for the missiles? I’m betting that they had some real good friends in South Africa who helped them along the way.
And somewhere along this way...we ought to ask the administration to explain which idiots in the CIA and US military knew this and why they didn’t say anything publicly.
I don’t understand the opposition. One of the methods of nuclear non-proliferation is to offer contracts for enriched uranium for operating nuclear plants. We put the rods in, and take them out, under the auspises of the world nuclear body.
That way, nobody can build a bomb, nobody puts together their own infrastructure to manufacture enriched uranium.
If SA has nuclear power, that frees up more oil for the world markets.
If they ever decide to seize the plants to get nuclear material, we blow them up — we’ll know right where they are.
SA is right about oil. There is no shortage of oil, demand is meeting supply. Pumping more oil won’t in itself lower the price, unless the speculators start getting scared that they’ll be sitting on deliveries of actual oil with no where to sell them.
Meanwhile, since the senate voted to prohibit drilling, oil has hit a new record twice.
And they want to blame it on SA not pumping more oil?
“This agreement will pave the way for Saudi Arabia’s access to safe, reliable fuel sources for energy reactors and demonstrate Saudi leadership as a positive non-proliferation model for the region,” it said.
^^^
Wait! I checked to see if this was from the Onion. Why in the h3!! would they need nuclear power when they are sitting on an ocean of oil!?
Would you really believe any answer they gave?
On the other hand: can we stop them from buying the entire technology from North Korea or Russia?
I doubt that they have the nuke. What we’re doing though, I bet, is we’re giving them reactor technology so that when they get the bomb, it will look like they had the opportunity to build it from scratch. But the reality will be that we (or Israel) simply crated up a few spare nukes and shipped them off to Ryahd so that the Saudis would not get pushed around by the Iranians. That way, they have the bomb, but not the technology. We might even charge them a billion dollars to make it worth our while.
Some of you need to get your underwear re-arranged. This is about low-enriched uranium, which CAN NOT be used to make a bomb. And the reason for it is to keep them from acquiring the uranium enrichment technology that COULD be used to produce high-enriched uranium for making bombs.
We would be happy to do exactly the same for Iran, North Korea, or any other pre-nuclear state, if that state would agree to abandon enrichment.
Think before you go off on a rant!
Pardon me, but I don't speak Arabic. "Beyotch" is Arabic for "recreational pet goat"?
They won’t help us. I see no reason we should do anything for them.
Pardon my french Mr. Bush, but you SUCK.
Pardon my french Mr. Bush, but you SUCK.
I will and tell them to congratulate the president on a great piece of work. Taking care of our friends in the Gulf must be a very high priority.
Of course the Saudis, believers in the ROP, would never have any citizens who would want to attack another Country like, say, the United States, right?
My issues are that:
1) I am pretty sure blowing up nuclear power plants would not really go over too well.
2) People are not really going to be able to separate the reasons why we give the tech to SA and fight against Iran, mostly because the American public is fairly stupid.
I honestly believe it is probably a arms race stepping stone for countries in the ME. SA doesn't want to be in the same position it was in in the early 90’s with Iraq.
Oh goody....Wahhabists with nukes. Well, maybe we’ll let THEM nuke Iran and they can fight it out...we’ll just sit back and watch....
Another idea occured to me...if this is actually for nuclear power, did it ever occur to anyone why Saudi Arabia, the world’s #1 oil producer, NEEDS nuclear power? Because they’re running low on oil and they need an alternative supply of energy. That’s why I think they won’t increase production, because they’re running out but don’t want the world to know, so they make up excuses like “we won’t pump more unless the customers ask.”
Or, if this is intended for weapons, it’s to keep Iran at bay. If Saudi emerges as a potential nuclear power, Iran will think twice about going after them. We don’t want Iran going after SA—the last thing we need is Nutjob controlling the largest oilfields on the planet. Of course, a nuclear Saudi Arabia does not sound too comforting either....
Republicans are Pod People. The only sensible explanation. Blackbird.
Low Concentration of Uranium Uranium hexafluoride contains two types of uranium, U-238 and U-235. The percentage of U-235, which is the type of uranium that fissions easily, is less than 1 percent. To make the uranium usable as a fuel, its U-235 content is increased to between 3 percent and 5 percent. This process is called enrichment. The concentration of U-235 is so low in enriched uranium that an explosion is impossible. Rendering it totally unusable for weapons development and perfect for reactor fuel rods.
Investigate, educate, then opinionate.
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