Nuclear contagion seems to be threatening to spread in the world’s tinderbox: the Persian Gulf region. Spurred by Iran’s continued push for nuclear weapons (at least according to Western intelligence agencies and international monitors) and Israel’s unacknowledged possession of them, Saudi Arabia is thinking of getting into the atomic act.
“Our efforts and those of the world have failed to convince Israel to abandon its weapons of mass destruction, as well as Iran,” former Saudi intel chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said in Riyadh on Monday. “Therefore it is our duty towards our nation and people to consider all possible options, including the possession of these weapons.”
Interestingly, on Tuesday the American Enterprise Institute, in a new report, warned of just such an outcome if the international community lets Tehran go nuclear:
And what of the likely proliferation of weapons of mass destruction regionwide in response to an Iranian nuclear acquisition? Would we welcome a Saudi Arabia with nuclear weapons? What if the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Turkey, and others followed suit?
