U.S. boosts capacity as the Iran war spreads to Jordan and the Red Sea

President Trump said Thursday that a newly-signed nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia is dependent on the kingdom joining the Abraham Accords, a pact to normalize relations with Israel, and will not give the Saudis a domestic enrichment capacity.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Wednesday that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia had signed a commercial nuclear deal that could see the kingdom develop a civilian nuclear program in coordination with American companies.

Mr. Trump said the deal with Saudi Arabia would not include domestic enrichment of uranium or other nuclear materials in the kingdom, which was left unclear by Wednesday's announcement.

That indicates that fissile material for energy production and other civilian purposes would have to be brought into Saudi Arabia from outside the kingdom.

"There will be no enrichment of material!," Mr. Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform, adding that the deal "will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords."

The accords, first signed in 2020, have so far normalized economic and diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Kazakhstan agreed to join in November.

Main oil contract Brent North Sea continued climbing toward $100 a barrel Thursday as Tehran-backed Houthi rebels targeted Red Sea shipping, raising fears that the Middle East war is widening.

Most Asian stock markets were buoyed by a much-needed bounce for regional tech firms as investor appetite for artificial intelligence (AI) see-saws. European markets were weaker, with London, Paris and Frankfurt all falling in midday trading.

International oil benchmark Brent soared as much as 5% to above $98 a barrel after Houthi rebels claimed to have struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.

Iran vowed to keep striking the region so long as it remains under attack by the U.S., which has launched 12 consecutive nights of strikes on targets across Iran.

The prospect of higher oil prices also raises the prospect of higher inflation and interest-rate hikes, adding to weak sentiment, analysts said.

Iran fired four miles at Jordan Thursday morning, three of which were intercepted, according to the Jordanian army, as Tehran continued targeting the close U.S. ally after a 12th night of American airstrikes on targets across Iran.

In a statement shared by Jordan's National Center for Security & Crises Management, a military source said that, over the past 24 hours, the Jordanian military had "dealt with four missiles and six Iranian