Will Saudi Arabia Go Nuclear? | Al Jazeera English

"If Iran develops a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit." That was the warning from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman last year. Now, the Kingdom is said to be a few months away from completing its first nuclear reactor and some arms-control experts are alarmed.

Photos have been published showing the reactor site in the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology on the outskirts of Riyadh. Construction is apparently nearly done around a vessel intended to contain atomic fuel.

Saudi Arabia is yet to sign up to an international framework aimed at ensuring atomic programmes are not used to build weapons. But what does all this mean for an already tense and volatile region?

Presenter: Hazem Sika | Guests: Ibrahim Fraihat, Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution at the Doha Institute; Seyed Mostafa Khoshcheshm, Professor of Journalism at the Fars Media Faculty under the Applied Sciences University; Mark Fitzpatrick, Director of the Non-Proliferation Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies

North Korea Is Fully Fledged Nuclear Power, Experts Agree
This image, made available for the first time on Tuesday April 7, shows the launch of a missile in Musudan-ri, North Korea. Experts say the country is a nuclear power. Photo courtesy of TimesOnline
TIMESONLINE: North Korea has become a fully fledged nuclear power, with the capacity to wipe out cities in Japan and South Korea.

The uncomfortable truth has been confirmed by a number of experts, from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency to the US Defence Secretary. According to intelligence briefings shown to academic experts, North Korea has successfully miniaturised nuclear warheads that could be launched on medium-range missiles.

This puts it ahead of Iran in the race for nuclear attack capability, and significantly alters the balance of power between North Korea’s large but poorly equipped military and the South Korean and US forces ranged against it.

“North Korea has nuclear weapons, which is a matter of fact,” the head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, said this week. “I don't like to accept any country as a nuclear weapon state. We have to face reality.” >>> Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo | Thursday, April 23, 2009

We’ve Got the Power, Says America’s Top Military Officer
THE TELEGRAPH: America's top military officer said the country does have the resources to attack Iran, despite the strain of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Adm Michael Mullen, who took over as chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff three weeks ago, said diplomacy remained the priority in dealing with Iran's suspected plans to develop a nuclear weapon and its support for anti-US insurgents in Iraq.

But at a press conference he said: "there is more than enough reserve to respond (militarily) if that, in fact, is what the national leadership wanted to do".

Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons could set off an arms race in the Middle East. "The risk of an accident or a miscalculation or of those weapons or materials falling into the hands of terrorists seem to me to be substantially increased," he added.

The two leaders appeared together just days after George W Bush raised the spectre of "World War Three" if Iran went nuclear. We can attack Iran, says US commander (more) By Alex Spillius in Washington

Mark Alexander