"Sold sold sold sold!"
Posted on 11/03/2006 3:47:49 PM PST by MadIvan
Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, UAE and Saudi Arabia seek atom technology
The spectre of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology.
The move, which follows the failure by the West to curb Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, could see a rapid spread of nuclear reactors in one of the world’s most unstable regions, stretching from the Gulf to the Levant and into North Africa.
The countries involved were named by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Tunisia and the UAE have also shown interest.
All want to build civilian nuclear energy programmes, as they are permitted to under international law. But the sudden rush to nuclear power has raised suspicions that the real intention is to acquire nuclear technology which could be used for the first Arab atomic bomb.
“Some Middle East states, including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, have shown initial interest nuclear power primarily for desalination purposes,” Tomihiro Taniguch, the deputy director-general of the IAEA, told the business weekly Middle East Economic Digest. He said that they had held preliminary discussions with the governments and that the IAEA’s technical advisory programme would be offered to them to help with studies into creating power plants.
Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert on nuclear proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that it was clear that the sudden drive for nuclear expertise was to provide the Arabs with a “security hedge”.
“If Iran was not on the path to a nuclear weapons capability you would probably not see this sudden rush [in the Arab world],” he said.
The announcement by the six nations is a stunning reversal of policy in the Arab world, which had until recently been pressing for a nuclear free Middle East, where only Israel has nuclear weapons.
Egypt and other North African states can argue with some justification that they need cheap, safe energy for their expanding economies and growing populations at a time of high oil prices.
The case will be much harder for Saudi Arabia, which sits on the world’s largest oil reserves. Earlier this year Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister, told The Times that his country opposed the spread of nuclear power and weapons in the Arab world.
Since then, however, the Iranians have accelerated their nuclear power and enrichment programmes.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Czar Putin must be salivating.
You'd think indoor plumbing would be first.
Ping!
"Sold sold sold sold!"
Type often?
susie
We are seeing biblical prophesy being fulfilled before our very eyes. It is scary to behold but it also should encourage the true believer because the end is getting closer. Let's just hope we can keep our sanity with all this election garbage going on until that happens.
In reality you know what`s going to happen before anything else? Another Chernobyl Islam style. The Muzzies can`t even contain themselves never mind a nuclear reaction. A cartoon sets them off for shietsake.
When see mullah in street, sheet in right hand, shake mullah, point to ground. When mullah look, slap mullah head with sole of shoe - Ha!
exactly,
they should have a race for employment, quality of life, literacy and employment
instead of conjunctively seeking to destroy israel
And arrogance is no substitute for nuclear surety. I see the accident potential ( Nukeflash ) going through the roof will all of these new players.
Somehow, Pakistan comes to mind.
If Iran is to be nuclear then these other states certainly feel they must be able to defend themselves against Iran A big part of what this war is all about is Iranian trying to consolidate the Islamic world under an Iranian Shia caliphate.
With a life expectancy of some 10 minutes after walking out the front door, they haven't got much time to worry about personal hygiene.
Now that made me laugh out loud!
Pakistan is not an arab nation.
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