Saudis May Go Nuclear to Counter Iran Despite Deal

Washington's reassurances that the framework nuclear deal reached Thursday will prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb may not be enough to keep Saudi Arabia from taking increasingly bold steps to counter Tehran.

And there are new warnings that one of those steps could include transforming the kingdom into a nuclear power, perhaps overnight.

“The Saudi Arabian leadership has said that Saudi Arabia will go nuclear,” said former U.S. ambassador Mark Wallace, now the chief executive officer at the Counter Extremism Project and co-founder of United Against Nuclear Iran [UANI]. “That may be as easy as paying for and taking delivery of a bomb from Pakistan.”
   
Publicly, the Saudis have cautiously welcomed the agreement, with King Salman telling U.S. President Barack Obama late Thursday he hopes the framework deal will strengthen the stability and security of the Middle East.

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“It is entirely unclear how far the Saudis are going to be willing to go to contest Iran or to roll it back,” said Jonathan Schanzer, vice resident for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, via Skype. 

It is not clear how long it would take Saudi Arabia to gain nuclear parity with Iran, but Schanzer said it is clear that, at the very least, the Saudis are seriously considering a move in that direction.

“It underscores how incredibly worried the Saudis are and Sunni states are about the growth of Iranian influence in the region,” he said.

Schanzer, with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, believes that’s why the Saudi-led air offensive in Yemen bears close scrutiny.

“The longer that this plays out I think the higher the probability we begin to see some mission creep and perhaps strikes on Iranian-backed targets elsewhere in the region,” he said.

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