Atomic Kingdom: If Iran Builds the Bomb, Will Saudi Arabia Be Next?
Just so you know: This is not normal. There is no excuse for any nation under any circumstances to get a nuclear weapon. There is no exception allowed in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , which Saudi Arabia has signed.
US policy for over 72 years has been to oppose any nation from getting the bomb. On the contrary, US leaders have tried through persuasion and punishment to prevent the spread of these weapons to foes and friends alike. It hasn't always worked, but each time, Washington tried.
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This policy began at the dawn of the nuclear age. In , Congress passed the Atomic Energy Act, prohibiting nuclear weapons technology transfers to any third party, including the United Kingdom. Even though the UK was a key partner in the Manhattan Project that built the first weapons, President Harry Truman refused to assist the UK when it declared its intent to develop the bomb in the late s.
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Even after it detonated its first device in , the US restricted British access to US nuclear programmes for years, including the development of the H-bomb. All presidents until now have agreed with John F. We must prevent the arms race from spreading to new nations, to new nuclear powers and to the reaches of outer space. This was not just a policy applied to hostile nations.
President Richard Nixon did the same both before and after Israel got its first weapon in Could they have done more? But they never okayed the programme. Similarly, the United States could have done more to stop India and Pakistan's nuclear programmes, but, again, it tried. After India detonated a "peaceful nuclear device" in , there was a fierce debate inside the Ford administration on how harshly the US should denounce the test.
Trump's silence on a Saudi nuclear bomb
After India tested again in , Pakistan announced it would match any nuclear advances made by India. The United States did not sit idly by and stay silent. President Clinton urged Pakistan, "not to follow the dangerous path India has taken". The pressure and persuasion failed, but the president did not stand on the sidelines.
Again, Washington tried to stop it. North Korea detonated a nuclear device in , but President George W. Bush did not give South Korea or Japan the green light to develop a nuclear weapon in response. Instead, Bush issued a joint statement with the leaders from Russia, South Korea, and Japan that "reaffirmed our commitment to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula". In the 12 years since North Korea went nuclear, no US official has ever said its neighbours should get the bomb in response - until now.
Analysis: Saudi Arabia won't build a nuclear bomb
He talked favourably about Japan and South Korea having their own weapons. Most pointedly, when Cooper asked if Saudi Arabia should get nuclear weapons, he responded: Saudi Arabia lacks the industrial and technological ability to build a bomb. But it has an expansive Saudi nuclear energy programme now underway that could provide the basis for a future bomb programme. If there were any doubt as to the intent of that programme, Mohammed bin Salman's naked boast should dispel them. There is no race. Iran has a sophisticated nuclear program at numerous sites which goes back decades.
It has uranium mines, three uranium-enrichment plants and a nuclear reactor.
Saudi Arabia
Iran has plans for numerous more reactors. Saudi Arabia is mostly paying lip service to the Iran nuclear arms race issue as a way to get the US to take the Iranian threat seriously.
- The kingdom's nuclear rhetoric is about US policy and the Iranian threat..
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Any concerns that countries might have with the threat would therefore only exist in a matter of years, if not a decade. Jerusalem Post Middle East. Share on facebook Share on twitter. As one of our loyal readers, we ask you to be our partner.
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