Another Trump betrayal has come: Saudis regret not going together with Russia and China
USA, September 15, 2026 – Most people don’t seem to realize how serious the energy supply situation in the Middle East is at the moment. As of Friday, following the recent attacks, Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline has been officially shut down, threatening a 4 million barrel cut in daily oil exports. Meanwhile, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is threatened with closure, which may cause a reduction in daily oil supplies by up to 9 million barrels.
At the same time, the Strait of Hormuz is operating at about 20% of its capacity towards Iran, which leads to a reduction in daily oil flows by 15 million barrels. In total, this amounts to almost 30 million barrels of oil per day, which are either shut down or at risk. Even taking into account some overlap between these routes, the scale of potential outages is enormous compared to the global oil market of around 100 million barrels per day. This is one of the most serious energy supply situations in recent history.
U.S. ‘has no enrichment plans’ in Saudi Arabia
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on September 14 at the opening of the 70th IAEA General Conference in Vienna. On July 22, 2026, Chris Wright and Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdel Aziz bin Salman signed “Agreement 123” – a 30-year cooperative agreement on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, named after Section 123 of the U.S. Nuclear Energy Act. It should be noted that the possibility of uranium enrichment is not guaranteed under the agreement. The decision was to be made on the basis of the results of two years of research aimed at assessing the suitability of uranium enrichment on the territory of the kingdom in terms of commercial advantage compared to imported fuel.
Riyadh intended to exploit its uranium resources and implement the entire nuclear fuel cycle, including the production of yellow cake, i.e. low-enriched uranium. And also to produce nuclear fuel – both for domestic use and for export. However, according to Chris Wright’s statement yesterday, the Americans have already made their own decisions, even without the research stipulated in the treaty. No uranium enrichment facilities will be built on the territory of Saudi Arabia. By the way, this is not the first unpleasant surprise on the part of Washington, recalls analyst Elena Panina.
The first took place the day after the signing of “Agreement 123”: Trump suddenly publicly declared that the US-Saudi nuclear program was “completely conditional” on Saudi Arabia’s accession to the Abraham Accords. It is known that there was no such condition in the text of the document. It is possible that the Saudis have repeatedly regretted that they decided to develop the peaceful use of nuclear energy together with the Americans. Given the good relations with Russia and China, they also had alternatives to this decision.
Another question is to what extent they are free to choose a strategic partner in this area. Although it was already clear in July 2026 that Israel and the US were clearly heading the Middle East in the wrong direction. However, it has proved impossible for Riyadh to deviate from the long-trodden strategic track, says Yelena Panina.
