Well here's a new twist -- Saudi says no bar to nuclear cooperation with Russia By Andrew Hammond Wed Feb 14, 8:06 AM ET RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter and a key U.S. ally, said on Wednesday the kingdom does not see any obstacle to cooperating with Russia on developing a nuclear energy program. "There is no obstacle to cooperate with Russia on ... nuclear energy," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a news conference. Analysts said the plan by Sunni bastion Saudi Arabia is a warning shot to Shi'ite Iran that it could enter the regional arms race and start developing nuclear capability. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday during a visit to Saudi Arabia that his country would consider helping the kingdom with a possible atomic energy program. "On nuclear energy, there was a (Russian) contact with the kingdom and the Gulf Cooperation Council," he said when asked if Saudi Arabia and Russia had made any agreements. Saudi Arabia and fellow GCC members Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, said in December they would study embarking on a joint civil atomic program. http://rawstory.com/showarticle.php...m/s/nm/20070214/wl_nm/saudi_russia_nuclear_dc
Saudi Arabia is one of the most militarized country in the world. It spent 10% of its GDP (vs 4.7% for US) on military. It shouldn't come as a surprise they have some sort of nuclear program. Interestingly, even though most of the 9/11 hijackers are from their and their citizens' heavy sponsorship to Al Qaeda, we don't do anything to them. I suppose they are also very skillful in the lobbying business. Might even be more skillful than Israel because I don't even hear any complaints about the Saudi Arabia lobby.
The article doesn't say anything about a military need (except for deterrence), but why would an oil rich nation like SA need a nuclear energy program? BTW it's there, not their.
Cost, plus it's going to run out eventually. Russia is pretty oil rich but they have plenty of nuclear facilities. It seems weird that of all the choices that they'd buy Russian technology though. Also I guess the less they consume the more they can sell. I would be suprised if they developed a military program anytime soon, even with the Iran situation. They already have the benefit of our nuclear deterrent.
im tired of hearing the anti arab bias from liberals. its almost like them flexing their muscles and saying they've got a bigger dick than republicans. arab nations have cooperated significantly on banking reforms post september 11th. in fact im afraid that going after iran might be talked up by democratic candidates to show their military hawkness. the whole notion that gdp expenditure correlates to militarization of a society or nation is also absurd. its actually just a statement of the fact that saudi arabia perceives significant defense needs and given the oil wealth has chosen to spend its money to catch up with considerably more advanced militaries of israel and larger militaries of iran and pre gulf war iraq. as far as their lobbying efforts go, they wield a big stick. israel might offer tactical strategic benefit of being an ally in the region but saudi has resources that rule the world. nuclear energy is great for the region. they have enough desert wasteland to store the nuclear waste and given their desire to export as much oil as possible it probably makes both enviromental and economic sense. all that being said, the reason the region gets love from the government is simple. you can rely on autocrats as long as they are stable and friendly. however democracy is not stable nor ensures friendly regimes and especially after the awful failure of neo-con agenda in iraq, there will be no push for political liberalization from the US in the near future.
If Iran, Israel, Pakistan and India have nuclear weapons, why not Saudi Arabia? Then all the Mid-East factions will be able to draw a line in the sand.
The first time that the Saudis made public mention of nuclear programs was about a day or two after the UN Security Council 'deadline' for Iran to suspend weapons programs passed. I think the correlation is fairly obvious.
Some experts in the region have suggested in the past that the Saudis already went "nuclear", they just did it via proxy (Pakistan). Personally, I don't think they need to have nuclear capabilities, but they can certainly use the mere threat of doing so as a bargaining chip. Long term, I wouldn't be surprised if they -- perhaps along with the Egyptians -- decide to go nuclear as a way to convince the Israelis and the U.S. that a nuke-free Middle East is the only acceptable condition for coexistence, that they can't live in a region where only the Israelis have such leverage. It's far-fetched, but I wouldn't completely dismiss it if all else fails, especially if the Iranians do develop a nuclear program for military purposes. Oh, and ymc, Saudi's military isn't less "modern" than Iran's. Next to Israel, there is no country in the entire region that enjoys a more modern, state of the art military than the Saudis. Their defense budget is roughly twice that of Israel's. They're not a nuclear power, but they have a pretty decent conventional force at their disposal.
