Firestorm over U.A.E.-U.S. nuclear deal?

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, April 2 (UPI) -- In a move sure to stoke a diplomatic frenzy, the United Arab Emirates, with U.S. interests, may be the first Arab state with a civilian nuclear-energy program.

U.S. President George W. Bush signed a treaty with the United Arab Emirates during his last week in office to give American companies the opportunity to enter into nuclear trade relations in the Emirates, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The United Arab Emirates would purchase nuclear fuel from approved contractors for the facility rather than rely on controversial autonomous uranium enrichment.

Washington sees the United Arab Emirates deal as a model of nuclear energy in the Gulf region and could put legislation before Congress as early as next week, the Journal reports.

The move is controversial for some U.S. lawmakers, who point to a role the United Arab Emirates played as a transit hub for sensitive military technology to Iran, Iraq and Libya. Iran, for its part, is likely to react furiously to the deal, as it adamantly maintains its nuclear program is for civilian energy purposes.

The Gulf region holds some of the largest oil deposits in the world. States in the United Arab Emirates must import natural gas, however, for fuel and to power water-desalination plants.

If approved, nuclear facilities in the United Arab Emirates would go online by 2017.