The United States of America and Saudi Arabia are set to announce a deal that will allow the Gulf kingdom to develop a civilian nuclear programme.

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to ask congress to approve the agreement with Saudi Arabia.

The agreement could be worth billions of dollars to the U.S., with American companies potentially involved in building facilities to produce enriched uranium, which can be used as fuel for nuclear power plants but also to make nuclear weapons.

The deal is expected to last 30 years and involve U.S. firms, including Westinghouse, in developing the programme.

The timing of the deal’s announcement is controversial, as the U.S. is currently at war with Iran over efforts to prevent Tehran from enriching uranium domestically and making it more difficult for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

Head of the Middle East programme at Defense Priorities, Rosemary Kelanic, warned in a social media post “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 described the decision as reckless and not in the U.S. interest.

“Saudi enrichment would put immense pressure on Iran to get the bomb. Is Trump trying to provoke Iran into weaponising?,” she said.