Iran's nuke plans spark race

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LONDON -- Agents with Britain's MI6 intelligence agency who are based in the Middle East have established that 13 countries in the region have drawn up new plans -- or reviewed previous ones -- to build nuclear stations following in the path of Iran's push for an enriched uranium program capable of producing nuclear weapons, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

"It is clear that those countries are motivated by what Tehran is doing to enter into the nuclear weapons club," states an MI6 report.

And the International Institute for Strategic Studies, IISS, confirming MI6's findings, said the other nations "have embarked on their programs in order to give them each the option of building a nuclear bomb in the future."

IISS chief executive John Chapman said: "Iran's program has built on regional rivalry, security concerns and sheer one-upmanship.

"These issues have contributed to a regional surge to obtain nuclear energy. The urgent question for Britain, the United States and other countries with interests in the region is how to confine the expansion to purely nuclear civilian programs. That is exactly what Iran claims it was doing. We have established the truth is otherwise."

By continuing to create enriched uranium suitable to be weaponized for its latest ballistic missile, the Shahab-3, Iran already has established itself as not only a threat to Israel, but to Turkey, a NATO nation; Egypt, with its pro-West government; Jordan, also pro-West; and the United Arab Republics. These are all nations where the West has strategic interests.

With its 900-mile range, the Shahab-3 could deliver nuclear warheads to any of these countries.

"It is that growing fear which has triggered the drive in these countries to create its own nuclear shield," states the MI6 report.

John Chapman believes Tehran is "racing to be the first nation in the region to have a full nuclear weapons capability, possibly by 2010. In turn the Sunni monarchs of the Gulf are increasingly worried, not least because Tehran is stirring deep unrest among their own Shia populations."

Saudi Arabia, the leading Sunni power in the region, has publicly expressed its fears about a nuclear-armed Iran. MI6 agents have established that for some time Pakistan's nuclear scientists have provided expert help to the Saudi government to develop its nuclear capability.

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