Saudi Gazette report

DAVOS — Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Climate Envoy Adel Al-Jubeir said that Saudi Arabia is striving to develop its nuclear program to generate nuclear energy in order to benefit from its uranium reserves, which are estimated at ranging between one percent and four percent of global reserves. He ruled out any intention to produce nuclear weapons.

Speaking at a dialogue session hosted by the Saudi House at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Al-Jubeir said that Saudi Arabia is one of the largest energy producers in the world. "We want to convert uranium into fuel that is sold at a higher price, and this includes all the stages of converting uranium from raw material to energy," he said.

Referring to the Kingdom's mining and uranium enriching programs, the minister emphasized that Saudi Arabia wants to benefit from industries related to it as well as from jobs and profits resulting from it. "We believe that we can achieve this in a way that has nothing to do with producing nuclear weapons as our main goal is to produce energy and make profits," he said.

Al-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia wants to export various energy products including oil, gas, electricity, solar energy, water energy and even nuclear energy to the world. "We do not want to be a country where mining companies come to extract minerals and transport them abroad for processing, refining and producing energy outside the country, so that we end up with a hole in the ground and benefit from only 10 percent of the value," he said.