Saudi Arabia: If Iran builds nukes, so will we

CBS

Mideast watchers probably could have seen this coming: A Saudi Arabian official has warned that his country will not tolerate losing a nuclear arms race to Iran.

Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, a senior official in Riyadh said: "We cannot live in a situation where Iran has nuclear weapons and we don't. It's as simple as that. If Iran develops a nuclear weapon, that will be unacceptable to us and we will have to follow suit."

The official was clarifying remarks made by Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to Washington, at a NATO meeting in the U.K. Turki had said, according to a transcript obtained by The Guardian, that if Iran were to build a nuclear weapon, that "would compel Saudi Arabia ... to pursue policies which could lead to untold and possibly dramatic consequences."

Iran test-fires 14 missiles able to reach Israel
Iran unveils "ready" underground missile silos
Iran vows to triple uranium enrichment

The senior official, whom The Guardian did not identify and who works for Turki, was speaking to clarify his boss' remarks.

Iran has repeatedly denied it is attempting to build nuclear weapons, and said that its nuclear program is entirely for peaceful, energy production purposes. To that end, Saudi Arabia has also said it would "reluctantly push ahead with its own civilian nuclear program," the Guardian reports.

While Iran's denials of its nuclear weapons ambitions have come frequently, so too have the accusations to the contrary.

As recently as Wednesday, the U.K. accused Iran of secretly testing missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload, Reuters reports.

"Iran has ... been carrying out covert ballistic missile tests and rocket launches, including testing missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload in contravention of U.N. resolution 1929," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told parliament.

Resolution 1929, passed by the U.N. Security Council a year ago, tightened sanctions against Iran imposed over its nuclear program, which Western countries say is aimed at building a weapon, Reuters reports.

Iran denied the claim.

The two heavyweight Middle Eastern countries have long cast themselves in regional affairs as opposing powers. Iran frequently accuses Saudi Arabia of unfairly supporting Sunni Muslim causes in the region, and the Saudis in turn accuse Iran of negatively engaging in pro-Shiite Muslim affairs, especially in Syria, Lebanon and Bahrain.

Now, their ethnically-grounded conflict threatens to take on Cold War dimensions, especially if Western accusations over Iran's nuclear ambitions prove to be true.

[Anotheryahoo]

Its kind of comical when you think about how everyone is trying so hard to pretend Iran isnt building Nukes. Please ignore those missiles they just unveiled,ignore the levels of enrichment they are boasting of,ignore the comments little Hitler Jr is making......Put head in sand. There all is better, Iran isnt making Nukes.

[pete4808]

Israel has over 300 nukes so how come Saudi Arabia doesn't say if Israel has nukes we can too have nukes.

[johnnieonenote]

I love the part' If Iran builds nuclear weapons'! LOL This could snap the US out of the depression - we sell both sides nukes, they annihilate each other and we grab whatever good oil there is left. Its a win-win situation for the USA.

[johnnieonenote]

I love the part' If Iran builds nuclear weapons'! LOL This could snap the US out of the depression - we sell both sides nukes, they annihilate each other and we grab whatever good oil there is left. Its a win-win situation for the USA.

[pete4808]

Sure if we survive an attack from the Soviets and Chine since they are shielding them and have armies there as we speak.

[xs650]

How are you going to build your nukes? You even cannot make your own paper towels.

[cbsblogger]

Can anyone deny that NATO and USA policies of recklessly and unilaterally invading sovereign nations such as Iraq and Libya have stoked the fires and desire of other such countries to possess their own nuclear weapons to prevent such attacks? It is a given that we're not going to attack countries that possess their own nukes. We're driving these other Middle East countries to possess their own nukes.

[tsdc7]

I disagree. Regional conflicts have had a greater influence on nuclear ambitions in the region than has U.S. involvement. For example, Pakistan began its nuclear program because of on-going conflicts with India. India developed nuclear weapons in response. Similarly, the fact that Israel has nuclear weapons has stoked the nuclear ambitions of anti-Israeli (or, conversely, pro-Palestinian) states (especially Egypt and Syria). I'm sure U.S. meddling doesn't help, but I think it's naive and overly simplistic to say we're the prime mover.

[pete4808]

I totally agree just look at what happened to Iraq and Libya after they gave up there nuke weapons program. Its no wonder Iran wants to have its own life insurance program.

[thebob-bob]

If you actually believe in an all powerful being that cares at all about the hairless monkeys running around the planet killing each other, then why would you need nukes at all??

Let's make sure all the religious fanatics blow the juice out of each other, poison their own lands, the planet and make their oil useless. God doesn't need nukes to make her will known.

[kiljare]

wow, did you just paste that blathering off of some lame site that also didn't do any research whatsoever? Iran has a responsive government to the will of its people? Shirley, you can't be serious.

Also WHY should Israel return lands WON in a war that was waged against them, that was so thoroughly dominated that it was over in 6 days? Screw returning the borders to anything pre-war, the palestinian leadership of the time is to blame and the arab world in general has only proved that Israel is right...time and time again.

[eiddam]

The war was because the Palestinians got tired of the Jews stealing more and more of their land and started to fight back. The Jews engaged Britian to war with the Palestinians who only had rocks against the British bullets. The Brits did this so the Jews for a time could OCCUPY the land, not OWN it. The United Ststes stepped in useing our Tax money and sent weapons to the Jews for over 60 years now. The weapons used in Gaza were stamped--USA. How would you like it if squatters came on your land, you said okay, but then hundreds more came and you found youself only having a tiny bathroom to live in???

[nojoy01]

A new arms race? Goody-goody-goody. There's nothing like a good old fashioned arms race to pump up an economy and get money circulating. And even better is that the arms race is over there & won't involve us. And best of all we get to sell technology & "expertise" to both sides. And if a couple of them nasty ol' A-bomgs do go off, well, they'll be over there & they won't be our problem. There's lotsa dollars (or Euros, or Yuan, or Won, etc.) to be made over there & all we hafta do is ignore a couple of pesky treaties and put some do-gooders with silly ideas about the right way to make a buck out to pasture, so to speak. The previous statement of policy was brought to you on behalf of various international companies (based in the U.S., Europe, and Asia) who posess both the technical knowledge & the manufacturing capability that would allow them to fulfill a war-mongering paranoid's wildest fantasy. The only thing preventing ANY nation in the world from becoming a member of the "nuclear club" is an adherence to international treaties and the amount of "national resources" (read money) they are willing to invest in the effort.

[to_john]

Here we go again: WMD hysteria.

[slatep]

Blowing each other up would certainly solve a lot of problems.!

This BS is just one more example of how intelligent these people are NOT.

There is plenty of sand to go around.

The leaders of these countries are just afraid they are going to lose the brutal absolute control they have over their little kingdoms.