After Iran, will Saudi Arabia be next?

 

Saudi King Abdullah with Iran President Ahmadinejad

This question is posed in the wake of Iran’s nuclear program that many think is for the purpose of building nuclear weapons rather than believing the country’s leadership that its goal in developing a nuclear program is to generate electricity and to provide fuel for medical reactors.

Surely, it is not only Israel that is restless about Iran, but the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is just as anxious as the Jewish state. It is more so now that nothing concrete has been discovered by the latest visit of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors simply because the Iranian government is uncooperative.

Both Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council want a WMD-free Middle East, but key members of Saudi’s royalty have already signified that if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, then Saudi Arabia will get one too.

And for a reason. They don’t want to be sitting duck of Iran’s present irascible leaders.

It is for this reason that this rich Kingdom has already signed nuclear technology agreements with several states: China, France, Argentina and South Korea, in order to address its need for research reactors, nuclear power plants and wherever it may lead, if only to deter Iran’s threat.

With the help of their Sunni allies in Pakistan, the more that Saudi Arabia can easily acquire the technology for developing a nuclear bomb, if and when it becomes necessary.

Does this mean that the Saudis are bereft of any defensive capabilities? Certainly not. The Kingdom has existing fighter jets – Typhoons and F15s. It is also now seeking to replace its existing Chinese CSS-2 medium range missiles with the more accurate Donfeng-21, which is launched from mobile trailers.

It is reported that these weapons are already targeted on Iran’s major cities, notably Tehran, home to a fifth of the entire population. One thing going well for Saudi Arabia is that Russia decided not to supply Iran with $800 million worth of S-300 PMU missiles, one of the most advanced anti-ballistic missile defense systems.

There is no doubt that the U.S. will do everything in its power to prevent the Arab Persian Gulf States or the Middle East, for that matter, to be engulf in a nuclear arms race. It could only make matters worst than it is already today.