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For those with a benign view of Iran’s nuclear program, consider this: Saudi Arabia is already thinking nuclear, reports intelligence newsletter Geostrategy-Direct.
The Saudi royal family is alarmed by the prospect of its next-door neighbor having a nuclear bomb, U.S. intelligence analysts say. The Saudis were spooked enough by Iraq’s nuclear program. But Iran is a Shiite state and has long fomented the large Shia minority in the eastern part of the Saudi kingdom. In addition, most of Saudi Arabia’s oil and natural gas reserves are in its Shiite-populated Eastern Province.
Saudi Arabia has been secretly obtaining help from Pakistan for its missile and nuclear program, the analysts report. Riyadh helped finance Pakistan’s nuclear program precisely to ensure that the royal family will have a bomb in case of an emergency.
The Saudis have already obtained the perfect delivery system for nuclear warheads – the CSS-2 missile from China. Pakistan helped arrange the purchase of up to 60 CSS-2 missiles during the late 1980s. The missiles have a range of more than 1,500 kilometers – with some reports asserting that they can reach 3,000 kilometers.
More important, the payload capacity is large enough for a nuclear weapon.
Outwardly, the Saudis might be kissing their Iranian neighbors. But the royal family has always sought to balance the ambitions of Tehran. As late as 1999, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz was seen touring Pakistani nuclear-weapons sites.
Saudi Arabia has neither the time nor the expertise for a nuclear program. The Saudis saw how Israel knocked out the Iraqi reactor at Osirak in 1981 and set back Baghdad’s program by a decade. Instead, the Saudis are expected to merely buy complete warheads and obtain Pakistani experts to maintain and operate the systems.
Related story:
Nuclear strike threat grows – from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin
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