On a race - Zvi Bar'el in Haaretz:

‘In May 2024, the British Guardian reported that Saudi Arabia and the U.S. had put together a package of agreements for security and technological cooperation, which would be part of a broader plan that would include normalization of relations with Israel.
However, in the current absence of a cease-fire in Gaza and given Benjamin Netanyahu's adamant objection to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and Israel's intent to attack Rafah, the Saudis are now trying to achieve a more modest plan in which Israel has no part.’

(…)

‘For years, Americans have been troubled by the possibility that the Saudis would turn to a non-American company to develop their nuclear program. A decade ago, American media reported that China had built uranium enrichment facilities in Saudi Arabia and facilities for converting uranium ore into "yellowcake," which is used for producing nuclear fuel.
In December 2022, Saudi Arabia's cooperation with China took a further step. On a visit to Riyadh, China's President Xi Jinping renewed a memorandum signed between the two states regarding technological cooperation, which included a partnership in the construction of nuclear reactors. Three months later, China chalked up another impressive achievement after its mediation led to a resumption of diplomatic relations between the Saudis and Iran.’

(…)

‘srael's policy toward the Palestinian issue clarifies that it views a two-state solution as a threat that is much graver than the potential acquisition of nuclear arms by Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, one might note, has said in the past that if Iran obtains nuclear weapons, it would too.
Such an Israeli conception, whereby it sees no danger in the Saudi civil nuclear program, pulls the rug from under Israel's adamant demand that Iran be prevented from having a similar program, giving the U.S. support in its pursuit of a nuclear accord with Iran that is based on American willingness to allow it to develop a similar program to the ones the Saudis have.
Herein lies some uncertainty regarding the scope of America's agreement. Will it enable the Saudis to enrich uranium on its territory? Will it demand that Saudi Arabia sign the additional protocol for the verification of nuclear safeguards, attached to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which would place the Saudis under invasive monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which it has opposed up to now? These are but two of the nine criteria dictated by clause 123 of the 1954 U.S. law regulating nuclear energy. Their implementation is required for a country to benefit from American cooperation in nuclear matters.’

Read the articlte here.

In other words, the US is willing to allow a nuclear arms race in the Middle East just to get China and Russia out of Riyadh.