Sunday, March 18, 2018

Meanwhile Near Iran

For all the focus on the North Korea nuclear problem, a potentially far worse nuclear problem continues in the Middle East with Iran.

Well, yes (tip to Instapundit):

Will the Iran deal set off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East? Mohammed bin Salman doesn’t want to go nuclear, he tells Norah O’Donnell in a 60 Minutes interview due to air on Sunday, but Saudi Arabia will not wait long after Iran creates a nuclear weapon to follow suit.

Unless you are delusional enough to believe the 2015 nuclear deal will make Iran normal:

“There's incredible talent and resources and sophistication inside of Iran, and it would be a very successful regional power that was also abiding by international norms and international rules, and that would be good for everybody."

Yeah, that would be good.

But we're not going to get anything good from the deal.

No, Iran will go nuclear--possibly enabled by North Korea--and nuclear proliferation will take off with Saudi Arabia, possibly Egypt, and certainly Turkey at some point. Add that to Israel, Pakistan, and off to the side, India, who already have nukes.

What could possibly go wrong with all those nukes in such a small area? Yes indeed, the dawn of interesting times.

And Saudi Arabia's path is already locked in place from past Saudi backing for the "(Sunni) Islamic bomb" in Pakistan.

I noted this path some years ago, including a reference to the Chinese-made CSS-2 missiles mentioned in the BBC link that could likely be the delivery system waiting for the warheads given that the Pakistanis have warhead designs made for the missile.

Have a super sparkly day.