Six Arab states join rush to go nuclear
THE SPECTRE of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology.The move, which follows the failure by the West to curb Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, could see a rapid spread of nuclear reactors in one of the world’s most unstable regions, stretching from the Gulf to the Levant and into North Africa.
The countries involved were named by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Tunisia and the UAE have also shown interest.
The Times of London is presenting this story as a failure of Western diplomacy, which is of course one way to look at it, but I suspect that there is more going on here than meets the eye.
The list of nations is interesting. While I have my issues with most of the governments listed, it is also obvious that these are some of our staunchest allies in the Middle East. All of them are heavily invested in fighting against Al-Qaida style Sunni terrorism, and all are also invested in resisting Iran’s Shiite theocracy.
None of these regimes have any need to fear a western attack and or occupation and they have also backed away from anti-Israel rhetoric.
Given that, I suspect that there is a message being sent here, probably at the behest of George Bush. My guess would be that this message is aimed at those members of the UNSC who are reluctant to support a tough line against Iran. It is aimed at changing the calculation for these nations from favoring inaction to favoring action.
Another possibility is that this is a message aimed at Iran, making it clear that even if they succeed at gaining nuclear weapons, they won’t be the only kids on the block to have them. Nuclear weapons are obviously less useful if your neighbors have them as well, and Iran might also see the dangers to themselves of being involved in a middle-east arms race.
In any event, this is an interesting development and there is almost certainly a lot more going on here than in readily apparent.
(via Riding Sun)
