Experts and analysts have suggested that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will develop its nuclear capabilities in the event of a nuclear agreement between Iran and the United States.
Iran and the United States agreed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, in 2015 during the administration of President Barack Obama.
The United States withdrew from the agreement unilaterally during the era of former President Donald Trump in 2018, before Washington returned to negotiating again indirectly with Tehran during the term of current President Joe Biden.
Jim Phillips, a senior researcher on Middle East affairs at the Heritage Foundation, said:Fox NewsThat “if Iran goes nuclear tomorrow, the next day the Saudis will probably buy a nuclear weapon from Pakistan or go ahead with their nuclear program.”
“They still have a long way to go, but they are said to have financed Pakistan’s nuclear programme, and there may be some trade-offs in that,” he added.
And Phillips added, “Saudi Arabia announces its negative views on reaching any possible nuclear agreement, and it strongly opposes it because of its expected impact on its national interests.”
A nuclear deal is likely to lead to Iran’s resumption of its previous level of trade, which will greatly affect the economic balance in the region.
Former Senator Todd Young said in an opinion article he published on Fox News recently that the gains that will be achieved for Tehran may reach 130.5 billion dollars.
“The Saudis are going to be worried about lower oil prices, and that’s the number one concern,” said Matthew McInnes of the Institute for the Study of War. “In general, the biggest concern is whether Iran will be able to use the income from the New Nuclear Deal to expand its arsenal of missiles and fund its proxies,” he said. and terrorist activities in the region.
“It is clear that given the longstanding relations with Pakistan on many fronts, there are concerns that this is the way through which Saudi Arabia can gain rapid access to nuclear weapons,” he added.
“I think Pakistan’s path is probably the easiest, but I think there are still a number of questions about whether that will work,” he said.
Saudi Arabia announced in September 2019 its intention to enrich uranium for its program to produce electricity from nuclear energy.
The issue of uranium enrichment was a sticking point between Riyadh and Washington, especially after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in 2018 that the kingdom would develop nuclear weapons if Iran did so, according to Archyde.com.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, says it wants to use nuclear energy to diversify its energy mix, but uranium enrichment also opens the door to the possibility of using it for military purposes.