Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, said on Sunday that Iran's Gulf Arab neighbors would act to shore up their security if Tehran were to obtain nuclear weapons, Reuters reported.
"If Iran gets an operational nuclear weapon, all bets are off," Prince Faisal said in an on-stage interview at the World Policy Conference in Abu Dhabi when asked about such a scenario.
"We are in a very dangerous space in the region...you can expect that regional states will certainly look towards how they can ensure their own security," he added.
Indirect US-Iranian talks to salvage the 2015 nuclear agreement between global powers and Iran have stalled in recent months.
Iran in September announced it had submitted its comments to the US response to the European Union’s draft for reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, but the US said the Iranian response "is not at all encouraging.”
A US official later said that the efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have “hit a wall” because of Iran's insistence on the closure of the UN nuclear watchdog's investigations.
Though Riyadh remained "skeptical" about the Iran nuclear deal, Prince Faisal said on Sunday it supported efforts to revive the pact "on condition that it be a starting point, not an end point" for a stronger deal with Tehran.
"The signs right now are not very positive unfortunately," Prince Faisal said, adding, "We hear from the Iranians that they have no interest in a nuclear weapons program, it would be very comforting to be able to believe that. We need more assurance on that level."
Saudi Arabia, which is Iran’s regional foe, has long spoken out against the Islamic Republic’s attempts to acquire nuclear weapons.
During the negotiations between Iran and world powers on the 2015 nuclear deal, Saudi Arabia and other major Sunni states expressed concern over a deal which would allow Iran to produce nuclear weapons – a position which placed them very close to Israel’s position on the matter.
Ultimately, however, Saudi Arabia's government announced that it welcomed the deal.
Prince Faisal previously said that his country would accept a nuclear deal with Iran if it ensured Tehran never obtained a nuclear weapon.