Saudi Arabia has taken the “strategic decision” to acquire “off the shelf” atomic weapons from Pakistan, risking a new arms race in the Middle East, senior US officials say.
The move by the Gulf kingdom, which has financed much of Islamabad’s nuclear program over the past three decades, comes amid growing anger among Sunni Arab states over a deal backed by US President Barack Obama, which they fear could allow Shia Iran to develop a nuclear bomb.
The agreement, due to be finalised next month and involving the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, is designed to roll back part of Tehran’s nuclear program in return for an easing of UN sanctions.
There are concerns that Saudi Arabia joining the nuclear club might provoke Turkey and Egypt to follow suit. “For the Saudis, the moment has come,” a former US defence official said.
Update: Report: Saudis may purchase Pakistani atomic bomb -- Times of Israel
WNU Editor: Since ascending to the throne, King Salman has certainly pursued an independent Saudi foreign/national security policy. Escalating support for Syria's rebels. Intervention in Yemen. Major arms purchases. Flooding the world with oil. And now the possibility of nuclear weapons. This is not the Saudi Arabia of last year. For U.S. policy makers and for President Obama .... this has the potential (and probability) of becoming a nightmare scenario .... a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
14 comments:
This says it all:
Faisal also warned that the Iranian nuclear deal “opens the door to nuclear proliferation, not closes it, as was the initial intention.”
Reap what you sow Obummer
WNU Editor,
The Saudi's will never get the Bomb.
First off the World is well aware that the Saudi's would give it to the terrorists,
Second, Saudi Arabia lacks the transparency, command and control.
Saudi Arabia is also a member of the NPT, so until they publically revoke their membership, it's just noise.
Yes, because the Wahabist Saudis play be Western rules just like the Japanese adhered to the Geneva convention during WW2.
DDSS
I laugh at those saying the NPT is an impediment to any countries acquisition of a nuke weapons system. America has upended 70 years of American security quarantees to the Saudis. Saudi Arabia had a plan for this situation in Pakistan, decades in the making. They are well positioned to succeed.
Obama's hubris has already caused 100,000's of thousands of deaths in the Middle East. His vision for the world is incompatible with reality. Only war will restablize what Obama has destablized.
Aizino,
Pakistan won't sell of a nuke as long as:
- India has more of them and better delivery systems,
- there are consequences, such as the re-imposition of the AK Kahn Sanctions.
The World won't allow Saudi Arabia to have a nuke, as there is no practical difference between Saudi having a nuke, and Al Quida to have a nuke.
Time will tell.
Are you an Arabic speaker?
- If the Pakistanis have 99 or 100 nukes it makes little difference in their nuclear force parity with India.
- Obama could not get sanctions on a country other than Israel to save his worthless hide.
-You seem to eager to please.
Its an open secret in the arab world that the Saudis bank rolled Pak nuke programme with the understanding that when asked they will turn as many warheads over as the saudis pay for. The saudis have have the C2 infrastructure in place as well as personnel that have been trained in pak...
Talk of the NPT preventing or "the world not allowing" saudi from acquiring weaponry is bollocks. Where there's a will there is a way...and when youre talking about the $ values that are being used in this context, theres no doubt that this WILL happen.
Anzino,
My Arabic, like my Farsi is rusty.
Saudi Arabia sponsors and funds Xiguir terrorists in China, Chechen and Intinguish terrorists in Russia,
Only 5 votes matter at the UNSC, Russia, China, The United States, France and Britain.
The real question is, will the US, Britain and France give up all those lucrative arms deals and mercenary contracts with The Kingdom,
Or will they let them ride until after the first Al Quida nuke strike in the US, then expedite the safe escape of all the Saudi's, like Bush did?
My observations are
not so trenchant. The
Obama administration's
weird way of negotiating
with Iran appears to be
starting a real arms
race in the worst place
in the world.
ofs
In the past I would have said the same thing Jay .... Saudi Arabia will never get the bomb. They do not have even have a rudimentary command and control infrastructure to handle such a weapon system .... then there are sanctions, political isolation, etc.. But that is the past .... and one thing that I am starting to realize .... especially in the past year .... is that the "old rules" are no longer being followed. The White House announces two months ago that Israel has a nuclear weapon .... no reaction .... no sanctions .... no consequences. U.S. soldiers training Ukrainian soldiers in Ukraine to fight and kill Russians .... something that was completely incomprehensible only a few years ago .... but it is now happening, and in violation of every agreement and understanding that was made between the West and the East when the Warsaw pact was dissolved. Arab Spring, Chinese territorial expansion, Sunni-Shiite wars, and the rise of radical Islam in Africa ... as I said .... the world is a different place right now .... the Post-Cold War era is coming to an end .... as well as the treaties and unwritten agreements that have been the rule for the past 70 years.
And now we have Saudi Arabia and a new King .... and he is embarking on an interventionist policy that is impacting oil markets, the war in Syria, propping the government in Egypt, launching a war in Yemen, and purchasing weapon systems with the intent of being in a position to face-up to Iran ... and if need be .... defeat them in a war. Nuclear weapons .... he is looking at that and saying why not us when countries like Israel and Pakistan have them already .... and who is not going to buy my oil when everyone is begging me to supply them with this resource.
Yup .... the old rules no longer apply .... and the new rulers who are coming on the scene care about them even less.
WNU,
It's a little like "Goodbye to all of that" by Graves. Again into the unknown, the old rules are barely being given a nod of acknowledgement.
James .... on my last visit to China my host and friend (he was China's deputy foreign minister in the 1980s) told me that the old rules and understandings were no longer being respected or followed. In my last trip to Russia .... my former colleagues were saying the same thing. But what they said did not hit me until recently .... but it is true .... my world, your world James, and if I may include the other readers and commentators of this blog who are 50 or over ... Jay, OFS, the other James, etc. .... our world is coming to an end, and the new generation that is coming up .... they cannot relate to what we went through and experienced. But they are writing their own rules and yes .... It's a little like "Goodbye to all of that" by Graves. Is this a scary trend .... you betcha.
If you have evidence that the gov of Saudi Arabia are funding the terrorists around the world. Why don't you provid them to UN Security Council? Because they couldn't find any evidence on KSA.
As long as I know the only country in the region that listed and well known as a sponsor of terrorists is Iran as Obama mentioned few days back
Anon .... Russia - Saudi relations have always been a problem because of Saudi support for Chechen Muslim extremists. These ties go back years .... http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/dec/05/chechnya.nickpatonwalsh
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