To compete with a nuclear Iran, Saudi Arabia now expresses interests in nuclear weapon development

[Zakk]

[QUOTE=draugur;47408126]Funny considering Iran doesn't even have the ability to make nuclear weapons. The enriching process for nuclear fuel they were going to use before they changed it to a system that makes even less weapons grade material as a byproduct wasn't even capable of making enough to make one bomb without having to import MASSIVE quantities of material, which would make it pretty obvious what they were doing at that point. It would be easier to just import the weapons grade material instead, which they could already do in theory anyway so..

[editline]27th March 2015[/editline]

A castle of glass.[/QUOTE]

A glastle

[Vornmusion]

[QUOTE=Ninja Gnome;47410334]tom clancy must have been a time traveller or something, he predicted the ukraine/russia/crimea debacle as well[/QUOTE]

That was a long held belief in political and military circles, grounded in some material facts that were later proven entirely correct. Sarah Palin even mentioned it back in 2008.

[EmperorScorpious]

[QUOTE=V12US;47422480]Considering ISIS is pretty much a Saudi Arabian pet project that ran seriously out of hand, I really think giving these guys nuclear technology would be a terrible idea.[/QUOTE]

Saudi Arabia was never a major supporter of ISIS, even in its creation.

It was built entirely independent of Saudi aid and if they ever received support, it was marginal at best.

[Sableye]

[QUOTE=ScumBunny;47422658]I think you're missing the bigger picture here.

A nuclear Iran (or almost-nuclear Iran) is something that is making all the other regional powers in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia and Egypt very very nervous, because it allows Iran to make power plays all over the region like thy're doing now in Syria and Iraq and Yemen, but with impunity.
Like I said above, nuclear nations have a lot more freedom to be dicks without even the superpowers being able to do much about them.
For example, a nuclear Iran would have made everyone think long and hard before intervening in Yemen like they're doing now.

This means that if the talks with Iran actually lead to a deal that has the sanctions lifted off Iran and leaves it less than a year away from atomic bombs, other regional powers are going to have to adjust one way or another.
And this being the Middle East it's probably not going to be pretty.[/QUOTE]

Iran has been a year away from a bomb for 20 years, they either have it already and don't want to test it and ruin the surprise or don't and aren't near it.

Its not too hard for a country that already has working reactors to do it, north Korea managed it, Iran's got a few more resources and a hell of a lot more brains even with the international community introducing cyberwarfare