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"In an interview with the U.S. television network CBS aired in mid-March, Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince who effectively runs the country for his f
by beloch 9y ago
"In an interview with the U.S. television network CBS aired in mid-March, Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince who effectively runs the country for his father King Salman, said, “Saudi Arabia doesn’t want to own a nuclear bomb. But without a doubt, if Iran develops a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.”
So, this is basically India and Pakistan all over again, only with countries that are a lot more likely to back terrorists.
"The Trump administration, eager to revive the torpid American nuclear industry, is pushing Saudi Arabia to consider U.S. companies -- such as Westinghouse Electric Co. and Exelon Corp. -- for its nuclear contracts instead of competitors from Russia, China and other countries. "
Perhaps this is about money, or perhaps its about stirring the middle eastern pot. Threaten to give the Saudi's all the nuclear tech they want while deliberately ignoring what they do with it and you might just get Iran to end its own nuclear program if only the U.S. will put a stop to this. Or you might get a nuclear conflict.
This is probably going to go down in history as amazingly dumb. Canada is still a little embarrassed about India, but this will be much worse.
- north_east_dev 9y agoThere's some interesting reading around this that essentially the Saudi's financed Pakistan's nukes in a deal where they can effectively get them under their control in no time should Iran develop one. Contracted out the development in a way :)
- sandworm101 9y agoIran is part of the problem, but the less-discussed issue remains Isreal's nukes. The race for nukes in the middle east started long ago. The saudis have just decided to start trying.
- erric 9y agoAren’t Israeli nukes an open secret? As in they never acknowledge they have them, but pretty much everyone believes they do?
- sandworm101 9y agoI don't think Israel considers them an open secret. Their existence is commonly assumed and Israel does little to dissuade the rumors, but we do not have specifics. No doubt they have the devices but we are not sure of their delivery methods or warhead sophistication.
- raverbashing 9y ago> Their existence is commonly assumed and Israel does little to dissuade the rumors, but we do not have specifics. No doubt they have the devices Just so you know, that's the definition of an open secret
- wbl 9y agoIsrael possesses a missile they call the Jericho. I wonder what it does to city walls.
- adventured 9y agoYour post is pretending that China and Russia do not exist. There is no scenario where Saudi Arabia doesn't get whatever nuclear power infrastructure they're after. Nothing will prevent that. China isn't going to have any problems building Saudi Arabia's nuclear power infrastructure, they'll be thrilled to do it. The same is true of Russia. There is nothing the US can reasonably do to stop China or Russia from building nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia. Ok, there's one exceptionally dumb broad option: war with the non-US supplier (eg China or Russia), or fundamentally destroy Saudi Arabia as we know it today and kill millions of people to shut down all industrial progress there to prevent any nation from ever attempting to build nuclear power there. Here's the reality of the near future: you are going to have to accept a bunch of bad actors are going to have access to various nuclear technology. It's only going to spread faster and faster.
- nradov 9y agoMore likely than Pakistan to back terrorists? The current likelihood of Pakistan backing terrorists is 100%.
- dragonwriter 9y agoMaybe they meant more likely than the average of India and Pakistan.