"I wasn't sad the day Israel destroyed the Iraqi Tamouz reactor 20 years ago," writes columnist Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid this past week, "and I will be a lot happier if the remaining reactors in Iran and Israel are also destroyed. How can a region full of idiots and ripe with disagreements keep such destructive weapons safe?"
Al-Rashid's column on nuclear weapons in the Middle East, which appeared in Saudi Arabia's English-language newspaper Arab News on Saturday, reflects a clear Arab concern over nuclear weapons in the hands of their Persian neighbors to the north. "The Iranians give paltry excuses, saying that the reactors produce cooking fuel and water reservoirs," Al-Rashid writes, "We would be also stupid if it didn't occur to us that they were in fact producing nuclear bombs by which they can threaten neighboring countries."
And Al-Rashid details exactly why he can so definitely accuse the Iranians of producing nuclear weapons: "It is unlikely that a country with a wealth of cheap oil would build expensive reactors that require rare technology and are dangerous to maintain just to produce electricity when it could easily do so using the available diesel for a quarter of the price and in huge quantities. They are trying to convince the world that the enriched uranium will not be used to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons. Only idiots would believe that."
Responding to the claim that if Iran is producing nuclear weapons, "the purpose... would be to create a balance of power with Israel and not to threaten Arab countries," the columnist scoffs, "This is dubious because Iran has never been a front in the confrontation with Israel and never will be."
Al-Rashid continues, "The Iranian people will save billions of dollars if their government abandons this huge military project, which can only mean poverty and destruction for Iranians and would destroy us all." In conclusion, he writes, "The fact remains that what the IAEA is doing in Iran is great work and greatly benefits the region. It is in the interest of our brothers in Iran to accept that too."
As for Israel, the Saudi writer calls Israel's "nuclear arsenal" a "threat to the region and the world" that "only encourages other countries to acquire them too." Even though Israel has never confirmed possessing nuclear weapons, Al-Rashid writes, "Israel justifies its huge arsenal as self-defense against the forest of monsters in which it lives. But if the forest goes up in flames, Israel will either get burned by the fire or the nuclear dust that will radiate."
"We live at the mercy of extremists in countries like Israel and Iran," the Arab News article laments, "now that Saddam and his hypothetical arsenal are gone...."
Al-Rashid's column on nuclear weapons in the Middle East, which appeared in Saudi Arabia's English-language newspaper Arab News on Saturday, reflects a clear Arab concern over nuclear weapons in the hands of their Persian neighbors to the north. "The Iranians give paltry excuses, saying that the reactors produce cooking fuel and water reservoirs," Al-Rashid writes, "We would be also stupid if it didn't occur to us that they were in fact producing nuclear bombs by which they can threaten neighboring countries."
And Al-Rashid details exactly why he can so definitely accuse the Iranians of producing nuclear weapons: "It is unlikely that a country with a wealth of cheap oil would build expensive reactors that require rare technology and are dangerous to maintain just to produce electricity when it could easily do so using the available diesel for a quarter of the price and in huge quantities. They are trying to convince the world that the enriched uranium will not be used to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons. Only idiots would believe that."
Responding to the claim that if Iran is producing nuclear weapons, "the purpose... would be to create a balance of power with Israel and not to threaten Arab countries," the columnist scoffs, "This is dubious because Iran has never been a front in the confrontation with Israel and never will be."
Al-Rashid continues, "The Iranian people will save billions of dollars if their government abandons this huge military project, which can only mean poverty and destruction for Iranians and would destroy us all." In conclusion, he writes, "The fact remains that what the IAEA is doing in Iran is great work and greatly benefits the region. It is in the interest of our brothers in Iran to accept that too."
As for Israel, the Saudi writer calls Israel's "nuclear arsenal" a "threat to the region and the world" that "only encourages other countries to acquire them too." Even though Israel has never confirmed possessing nuclear weapons, Al-Rashid writes, "Israel justifies its huge arsenal as self-defense against the forest of monsters in which it lives. But if the forest goes up in flames, Israel will either get burned by the fire or the nuclear dust that will radiate."
"We live at the mercy of extremists in countries like Israel and Iran," the Arab News article laments, "now that Saddam and his hypothetical arsenal are gone...."