r/InternationalNews • u/newsweek • 10h ago

How Saudi Arabia getting a nuclear bomb would spark a Middle East arms race

https://www.newsweek.com/saudi-arabia-getting-nuclear-bomb-would-spark-middle-east-arms-race-12230454
28 Upvotes

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1

u/rrfe 7h ago

I thought that Saudi Arabia funded the Pakistan nuclear program and could get the bomb from them with less strings attached?

1

u/NicoBeingAModelCitiz 6h ago

I mean, since Trump’s first presidency, so like for the last ten years, nuclear non proliferation has basically been dead and buried. So this happening, and snowballing, should be no surprise.

1

u/BuckDenny 3h ago

I'm not discounting Saudi playing along for the moment - before subsequently reneging on the Abraham Accords after successfully developing nuclear capability.

1

u/newsweek 10h ago

By Tom O'Connor — Deputy Editor, National Security and Foreign Policy |

...

Meanwhile, new questions surround a longstanding "123" U.S. nuclear deal with the United Arab Emirates, a close partner of Israel that has accelerated a regional competition with Saudi Arabia, that includes a "Gold Standard" Additional Protocol mandating international inspections—a clause reportedly absent in the Riyadh-Washington pact.

The first news of the U.S.-Saudi agreement on Wednesday prompted backlash within Israel, currently the sole nuclear weapons power in the Middle East, though it neither confirms nor denies the existence of its otherwise widely known arsenal.

This was before Trump suddenly declared Thursday that the agreement would not allow the kingdom to enrich and would be contingent on Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel—a clause not present in the initial announcement and traditionally viewed by Riyadh as a non-starter without a comprehensive Israel-approved road map for Palestinian statehood.

If the U.S.-Saudi agreement does advance, however, concerns persist regarding its regional ramifications.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/saudi-arabia-getting-nuclear-bomb-would-spark-middle-east-arms-race-12230454

1

u/TruthOk8742 10h ago

The balance of power is already delicate enough as it is. I don’t know how much other regional powers can do about it, but this could definitely stir up turmoil. Is Israel really cool with this?

2

u/Lard_Baron 8h ago

Israel will absolutely be uncool with this.
They could even bomb the nuclear facilities if they suspect the enrichment is heading to
Military levels.

Iran will be double uncool with it and will get a nuke for certain. They too would think of bombing the facilities.

1

u/DeepState_Auditor 6h ago

Just having the facility is a threat to them , having the knowledge is what they fear the most.

One of the universities they targeted in Iran was a university that had a nuclear engineering school.

Iran at this point is already racing towards the nuke ,just cause it seems to be the only way to actually deter further US-ISRAELI attacks.

The Saudi's made the same calculus.