Saudi Arabia Sees the Handwriting on the Wall

[Valin]

Power Line:

John Hinderaker

March 14, 2015

 

The Obama administration insists that it is negotiating an agreement with Iran that will prevent that country from acquiring nuclear weapons–for a while, anyway. Critics of the negotiations, as reflected in the interim agreement already reached and in news reports of the discussions in progress, suspect that the deal Obama has in mind will facilitate, not prevent, a nuclear Iran. As reported, the deal will sunset in ten years, leaving Iran free to put its centrifuges, its enriched uranium and its ICBMs to work as a nuclear power.

 

But don’t take our word for it. For Iran’s rivals in the region, the current negotiations are potentially a matter of life and death. So what is Saudi Arabia doing? Beginning to develop its own nuclear capability. The * Wall Street Journal reports:

 

 

As U.S. and Iranian diplomats inched toward progress on Tehran’s nuclear program last week, Saudi Arabia quietly signed its own nuclear-cooperation agreement with South Korea.

 

That agreement, along with recent comments from Saudi officials and royals, is raising concerns on Capitol Hill and among U.S. allies that a deal with Iran, rather than stanching the spread of nuclear technologies, risks fueling it.

 

(Snip)

 

A number of senior Arab officials have warned the White House in recent months the Saudi government could seek Pakistan’s aid in developing nuclear technologies—or even buy an atomic bomb—if it sees an agreement with Iran as too weak.

 

 

 

The Saudis can’t afford to wait for ten years and see how things develop in Iran. If they don’t believe the U.S. is serious about blocking Iran’s nuclear ambitions, they understandably think they have no choice but to begin now to try to catch up with Iran’s nuclear program. So even though no agreement has been announced, the consequences of the administration’s fecklessness are already being seen.

 

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

An Arms Race involving The Most Powerful Weapons, in The Most Unstable/Dangerous region of the world...What Could Possibly Go Wrong!

 

 

* Behind Paywall