Saudis Launch Nuclear Research Reactor Amid Competition With Iran

Saudi Crown Prince, Muhammad bin Salman

 

The reactor launched on November 5 is among 16 that Saudi officials, citing archrival Iran’s continued development of nuclear energy, have said they plan to build over the next two decades at a cost of $80 billion.

While Riyadh insists its goal is to diversify away from oil and gas, the main drivers of the kingdom’s economy, the nuclear plans have raised concerns in the West about the possibility of a nuclear race between the two Middle Eastern rivals.

Like Iran, Riyadh insists its only goal is the development of peaceful nuclear technologies. But Prince Muhammad warned in March that if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, Riyadh will do so as well.

Stocking Up for World War III

 

Nuclear nonproliferation efforts are ending. A new arms race has begun.

Since the United States and the Soviet Union backed away from the precipice of nuclear war in the 1980s, the world’s stocks of nuclear weapons have declined from an estimated 60,000 to an estimated 10,000.

According to a 2014 study by science journal Earth’s Future, however, it would take just 100 nuclear detonations to create a worldwide climate catastrophe causing massive famine and death.

Building up nuclear deterrence best response to THAAD

Straight from the CCP mouthpiece, Global Times: A warning of a Chinese first nuclear strike against the United States of America.

They’re playing the victim card again after making many provocations, taking over the South China Sea and refusing to reign in their proxy against America, North Korea. They’re quite good at it, however, since people do believe they are the victim.

They’re using the THAAD deployment as an excuse and America is the scapegoat for their long wished-for ambitions of military superiority.

 

Some equipment for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system, including launch vehicles, has been delivered to South Korea for deployment. Beijing has also started to impose sanctions on Seoul. However, the US is the initiator and the major promoter for the THAAD installation. How China should react to US strategic provocations is more crucial.

Economic sanctions against the US are unlikely. THAAD producer Lockheed Martin is the world’s most powerful weapons manufacturers, and is beyond China’s grasp. Given the US’ economic scale, economic sanctions against it will be strategically unfavorable to China.

S. Korea’s nuclear armament could undermine US influence in Asia: report

Regardless of whether or not South Korea attains nuclear weapons, it will be eventually integrated into a new Asian bloc against the United States. That’s the direction Asia is moving as allies become increasingly skeptical of the U.S. as a reliable partner.

 

Should South Korea seek to go nuclear, the country could face such negative consequences as reduced international standing in the campaign to denuclearize North Korea, the possible imposition of economic sanctions and potentially encouraging Japan to develop nuclear weapons capability, the CRS report said.

“For the United States, encouraging South Korea to develop nuclear weapons could mean diminished U.S. influence in Asia, the unraveling of the U.S. alliance system and the possibility of creating a destabilizing nuclear arms race in Asia,” the report said.

Obama Starts Mid-East Nuke Race As Israel Says Gulf States Pursuing Bombs

Back in October, we asked the following: “Did Obama Just Set Off A Global Nuclear Arms Race By Signing The Iran Deal?”

On the surface that seems like an oxymoronic headline. After all, the nuclear accord is supposed to be about curbing nuclear proliferation, not setting off an arms race.

Former U.S. official urges Pentagon to skip buying new ICBMs

Again, America’s enemies are arming and modernizing while America wants to continue suicidally disarming. This brings into play serious doubts what side the previous administrations (as well as current) are working for, as this is beyond incompetence or ignorance.

This is the same defense secretary who worked under the Clinton administration. This is the same Clinton administration who purposely sold American supercomputers to China via the U.S. Department of Commerce and is largely responsible for the Asian giant’s threatening rise. One can only wonder what has been given to Russia since then.

 

Former Defense Secretary William Perry on Thursday called for the Pentagon to skip replacing its aging stockpile of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), arguing that U.S. nuclear-armed submarines and a new long-range bomber program would provide sufficient deterrent value.

Perry, a close friend and mentor of the current defense secretary, Ash Carter, said the United States was on “the brink of a new nuclear arms race,” that would be extremely expensive, and the ICBMs were not necessary as a deterrent force.

ISIS planning ‘nuclear tsunami’

Nuclear annihilation across the globe. This is what a German reporter who successfully embedded with the Islamic State says the terror group is planning. Jurgen Todenhofer released his findings in a book titled “Inside IS – Ten Days in the Islamic State,” reports the UK’s Daily Express.

Saudi Press: We Must Have A Military Nuclear Program Within A Decade

Following the July 14, 2015 announcement in Vienna of the Iran-P5+1 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Saudi press featured numerous articles openly calling for Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to use the coming decade – the time frame of the JCPOA – to develop their own military nuclear program, against the nuclear threat that they say Iran will constitute after the agreement expires.

There have already been calls for a clandestine Saudi nuclear program to parallel Iran’s, which were backed up by official Saudi sources. For example, the month before the announcement of the JCPOA, Saudi Ambassador to the U.K. Emir Muhammad bin Nawwaf bin ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz Al-Saud told the Daily Telegraph that if the upcoming nuclear agreement with Iran did not include a serious Iranian commitment to refrain from developing nuclear weapons, then as far as Saudi Arabia is concerned, “all options are on the table.” He emphasized that over the years, his country had opposed the development of nuclear weapons, but that Iran’s policy on the issue “has changed the whole outlook in the region.”[1]

Saudis to warn Obama they will match Iran’s nuke buildup

Riyadh and other Gulf capitals reportedly will insist they will have ‘whatever the Iranians have,’ as Camp David summit gets underway

Saudi Arabian officials are warning that they will seek to match Iran’s nuclear arsenal, a US newspaper reported Thursday, as US President Barack Obama and leaders from six Gulf nations — including Riyadh — convened outside Washington to work through tensions sparked by the US bid for a nuclear deal with Tehran, a pursuit that has put regional partners on edge.

Along with Saudi Arabia, smaller Arab countries also say they also plan to pursue a nuclear weapons program to offset Iran’s, portending a much-feared nuclear arms race in the Middle East, according to the New York Times.

“We can’t sit back and be nowhere as Iran is allowed to retain much of its capability and amass its research,” one Arab leader attending the Camp David summit told the New York Times.

The Obama administration appears to be negotiating on Iran’s side against West

Today there are no ‘mistakes’.

The Obama administration knows exactly what it’s doing and is far from ignorant. It’s clearly siding with Iran and putting Israel’s back against the wall. Israel will be forced to defend its existence — as it clearly demonstrated it’s capable of the other day. If and when Israel chooses to strike, the propaganda machines globally will be running full speed and claim Israel as the evil war mongering aggressor. It’s the perfect trap designed by the Obama administration in collusion with Iran and other hostile nations.

 

Democratic New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez made headlines during a hearing with Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken in January when he said, “I have to be honest with you, the more I hear from the administration and quotes, the more it sounds like talking points coming out of Tehran.”

Amir Hossein Motaghi, an Iranian reporter who defected to Switzerland last week, recently made a similar comment about the American approach to nuclear talks with Iran: “The U.S. negotiating team are mainly there to speak on Iran’s behalf with other members of the 5+1 countries and convince them of a deal.”

Saudi Arabia says it won’t rule out building nuclear weapons

This could end up turning into a scenario where, like Japan, Saudi Arabia develops breakout capacity in order to go nuclear in as little as three months if needed. Now that the Obama administration’s reckless policies have started a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, things are going to get extremely dangerous for Israel. With its back against the wall it may have no choice but to strike or even use the Samson Option should it be attacked.

 

 

Saudi Arabia will not rule out building or acquiring nuclear weapons, the country’s ambassador to the United States has indicated.

Asked whether Saudi Arabia would ever build nuclear weapons in an interview with US news channel CNN, Adel Al-Jubeir said the subject was “not something we would discuss publicly”.

Pressed later on the subject he said: “This is not something that I can comment on, nor would I comment on.”

Report: Saudis might help Israel attack Iran in exchange for progress in peace process

In private talks with European sources, the Saudis have expressed their willingness to cooperate with Israel on Iran, including use of Saudi air space by the IDF for a possible air strike, according to a report by Channel 2.

Cooperation with Saudi Arabia would not come free, however. According to the report, the Saudi officials said they would need to see progress between Israelis and Palestinians before having enough legitimacy to allow Israel to use their air space.

Saudis parade nuclear missiles for the first time in defiance of US-Iranian nuclear accord

Saudi Arabia became the first Middle East nation to publicly exhibit its nuclear-capable missiles. The long-range, liquid propellant DF-3 ballistic missile (NATO designated CSS-2), purchased from China 27 years ago, was displayed for the first time at a Saudi military parade Tuesday, April 29, in the eastern military town of Hafar Al-Batin, at the junction of the Saudi-Kuwaiti-Iraqi borders.

…

Watched by a wide array of Saudi defense and military dignitaries, headed by Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister Salman bin Abdulaziz, the parade marked the end of the large-scale “Abdullah’s Sword” military war game.

Conspicuous on the saluting stand was the Pakistani Chief of Staff Gen. Raheel Sharif alongside eminent visitors, including King Hamad of Bahrain and Sheikh Muhammad bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.

debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report the event was deliberately loaded with highly-significant messages, the foremost of which was that the Middle East is in the throes of a nuclear arms race in the wake of the Iranian program.

Deterring an Asia nuke race

It should be known that Russia also plays the game of pretending to reduce their nuclear stockpiles, often claiming their latest missiles are classified as anything but long-range. The only country playing honest is the United States, which has a false sense of security and has developed the illusion that total disarmament would be a demonstration of moral strength.

SINGAPORE – How many nuclear weapons and delivery systems does a country need as an effective deterrent against the threats of attack? Finding an acceptable balance is critically important in Asia, where four of the world’s nine nuclear-armed states are located.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported in June that all four Asian nations with nuclear weapons — China, India, Pakistan and North Korea — appeared to be expanding their arsenals while the United States, Russia, France, Britain and Israel were either reducing them or holding the number static.

China, India, Pakistan boost nuclear arsenals: Study

Three of the world’s nuclear powers — China, India and Pakistan — have increased their arsenals over the past year, while the other five have cut their strength or kept it stable, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said Monday.

China now has 250 nuclear warheads against 240 in 2012, while Pakistan has increased its warheads by about 10 to between 100 and 120 and India has also added roughly 10 for a total of 90 to 110, SIPRI said in its annual report.