The same Washington establishment that launched a war to stop Iran from enriching uranium just signed a 30-year agreement letting Saudi Arabia do exactly that — and American firms stand to collect the contracts.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed what the Department of Energy called a "peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement" on Wednesday, with an accompanying safeguards agreement. The deal could allow a U.S.-built uranium enrichment facility on Saudi soil after a joint study, according to multiple outlets. Westinghouse, which designs many of the reactors sold abroad, is expected to be first in line for the work. The New York Times reported the Trump administration estimates the accord will deliver billions to the U.S. nuclear industry.

The hypocrisy is thick enough to cut with a centrifuge. The United States is currently at war with Iran — in part, we are told, to wipe out Tehran's ability to enrich uranium domestically and prevent a nuclear weapon. Now the U.S. is handing that same capability to Iran's chief regional rival, a kingdom whose de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told CBS News in 2018: "Without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible."

Both parties own this. Biden tried to reach the same deal, only he wanted to condition it on Saudi recognition of Israel. Trump dropped that demand entirely and pushed it through. The Guardian framed the timing as "controversial"; AP and the BBC noted the contradiction more quietly. Rosemary Kelanic, who heads the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, put it plainly: "Giving Saudi Arabia uranium enrichment technology is a terrible idea on many counts. But it's especially idiotic to do it in the middle of a war over Iran's nuclear programme." She called the decision reckless and not in the U.S. national interest.

The deal also will not include the IAEA's Additional Protocol — the enhanced monitoring and inspections regime that nonproliferation experts consider essential, according to AP. The UAE accepted those restrictions in its own 2009 agreement with the U.S. and gave up domestic enrichment entirely. That was the so-called "gold standard." Saudi Arabia got a different deal, with weaker safeguards, because Washington feared Riyadh would shop elsewhere for the technology if denied.

Then there is the Pakistan angle. AP reported that Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact, after which Pakistan's defense minister said his nation's nuclear program "will be made available" to Saudi Arabia if needed — a warning directed at Israel, the Middle East's only acknowledged nuclear-armed state.

Congress can review and vote a resolution of disapproval under the Atomic Energy Act, but as the Times noted, lawmakers would need a veto-proof majority to actually stop it. Some members of both parties have expressed opposition, but Republican control of both chambers makes passage likely.

Every dollar of American expertise and industrial capacity that goes into a Saudi enrichment facility is a dollar not spent on American energy infrastructure. The same government that says it must police the world's nuclear ambitions is exporting the technology and the contracts — and calling it a win because the check goes to a U.S. firm. The question Congress will have to answer is whether those contracts are worth handing a nuclear threshold to the kingdom that explicitly said it would cross it the moment its rival does.