Saudi Arabia Considers Nuclear Weapons After Iran’s Geneva Deal

[oberliner]

Source: Time

As Middle Eastern nations attempted to elbow each other aside in their efforts to offer encouraging statements about the recently-concluded nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers on Sunday, Saudi Arabia took its time. More than a day later the cabinet offered its own pallid take: “If there is good will, then this agreement could represent a preliminary step toward a comprehensive solution to the Iranian nuclear program.” Behind the gritted-teeth delivery there lurked an almost palpable sense of frustration, betrayal and impotence as Saudi Arabia watched its foremost foe gain ground in a 34-year competition for influence in the region.

As discussions leading up to the historic agreement in Geneva unfurled over the past several months, Saudi did its utmost to express its discontent, lobbying behind closed doors for greater restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and rejecting at the last minute a long-sought seat on the United Nations Security Council. Saudi officials even threatened to get their own nuclear weapons; just before the talks concluded the Saudi Ambassador to London, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, told The Times of London: “We are not going to sit idly by and receive a threat there and not think seriously how we can best defend our country and our region.”

“It’s as if Saudi Arabia and Iran suddenly traded places,” marvels Riyadh and Istanbul-based Saudi foreign affairs commentator Abdullah Al Shamri. “Now [U.S. President] Obama and [Iranian President] Rouhani are talking on the phone while their foreign ministers shake hands, and it’s Saudi Arabia that is throwing the temper tantrums at the U.N., shouting about nuclear weapons and trying to show the world that they are angry.”

Saudi Arabia’s frustration with the Iranian deal has little to do with nuclear weapons, and everything to do with insecurity, says F. Gregory Gause III, a professor of Middle East studies at the University of Vermont. “It comes from a profound and exaggerated fear that a nuclear deal with Iran is a prelude to an American-Iranian geopolitical agreement that in essence leaves Iran as the dominant power in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.” The U.S., of course, is unlikely to turn the keys to the region over to Iran anytime soon, but the Saudis are not entirely wrong in thinking the Obama Administration wants to disengage from the region, says Gause. The U.S. “backed off in Syria, it’s not taking an active role in Iraq, and it does want better relations with Iran.” From this, he says, the Saudis have pieced together a convincing narrative of abandonment that is causing them to lash out in unpredictable ways.



Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/11/26/saudi-arabia-considers-nuclear-weapons-after-irans-geneva-deal/

[KamaAina]

1. Sanctions, anyone?

Saudi officials even threatened to get their own nuclear weapons

[Crowman1979]

7. Let's see how many nuclear weapons they can buy without all that oil money coming in.

[Javaman]

18. Let's see the US float it's economy without all that Saudi oil coming in. nt

[bigdarryl]

2. Fuck them

[AtheistCrusader]

3. Once upon a time, the Iranian people were friends with the US.

It can be so, again.

A good first step would be to apologize for the '52 coup. Not just on the phone, but to go there. Sit down. Have meaningful talks.

I can dream, right?

[dipsydoodle]

4. Wankers

[BelgianMadCow]

5. One HELL of a Food for Oil programme incoming

or not.

[RobertEarl]

6. Well if you poll Saudi women drivers...

Oh wait, they can't drive....

Bet if you could, tho, they'd all be like: "Huh? We don't have nukes? Don't we need nukes? How can we be safe without nukes? Can I keep driving if we get nukes?"

No nukes is good nukes. Not even Japan can manage nukes.

[oberliner]

16. Word to the west: many Saudi women oppose lifting the driving ban

To my surprise, 134 (out of 170) respondents said female driving is not a necessity and that it opens the door for sexual harassment and encourages women to not wear the niqab under the pretext that they cannot see the road when driving. Some also fear that it gives husbands a chance to betray and agree with the assertion that it creates sedition in society.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/02/saudi-protest-driving-ban-not-popular

[Mr.Bill]

8. You mean the Bush family

didn't already give them some?

[warrant46]

9. That's how Israel got 200 of them

[oberliner]

15. You have not a clue what you are talking about

Could you possible really think this?

[Warren Stupidity]

10. Well that makes sense. If Iran is going to shut down their nuke program

that directly threatens Saudi security, so they have no choice but to nuke up themselves. Their hands are tied, there is nothing else they can do.

[cosmicone]

11. Saudi Arabia already paid for Pakistani nukes

made with Chinese technology.

What more do they want?

[Psephos]

12. Nuclear proliferation and destabilization in the M.E.? Who could possibly have foreseen that? n/t

[Laelth]

13. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Comrade Grumpy]

14. Time for sanctions and threats of military action, I suppose.

As our elected bullies love to say, "Nothing is off the table."

[Psephos]

17. Ever notice that those who foment the wars are never those who suffer in them?

You'd think we would have figured that out by now and fixed it at the source.