A Saudi Nuclear Program Emerges?

Via Jeff Goldstein, a German news report indicates that the Saudis have their fingerprints all over the Pakistani nuclear weapons program, and that they themselves may have benefitted from the technology transfers and information sharing to the point of developing their own weapons program.

This definitely makes the Middle East a whole lot more dangerous though it does clarify things a bit.

There's a consensus that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, and while most folks think that Israel is the primary target, I've been saying that Saudi Arabia is just as likely a target because of the Sunni/Shi'a split. Iran wants to dominate the region, both politically and religiously (and the two are so intertwined that the differences are sometimes indistinguishable).

This not only suggests that Saudi Arabia is thinking along those lines, but that the Saudis may have gone for nuclear weapons to offset Iran. Israel may not have even entered into the Saudi defense calculus and any mention of Israel in these kinds of discussions are only to throw a bone to the anti-Semites and to show street credibility - not necessarily true intentions.

And it once again shows the futility of the IAEA and its complete and utter inability to stop nuclear proliferation. Yet they managed to win a Nobel Prize for stopping nuclear proliferation. Great job Mohamed ElBaraedi.