In his private talks with U.S. national security officials, journalists and other foreign diplomats, Turki had been advising the U.S. to engage in direct talks with Iran, which is the kingdom`s principal rival for influence in the oil-rich Gulf. 'We talk to Iran all the time,' Turki told this reporter, 'why can`t you?'
The man who ran the $600 million a year Saudi operation to evict the Soviets from Afghanistan in the 1980s was convinced the recommendation by the Baker-Hamilton Commission report to talk to Tehran was the only way to persuade the mullahocracy to forgo their nuclear weapons option.
But other, currently more influential, voices among the Saudi royals, were truculently bellicose. Proselytized by Prince Bandar, the kingdom`s national security chief, and Turki`s predecessor in Washington for a record-setting 22 years, king Abdullah, Defense Minister Sultan, and Interior Minister Naif bin Abd al-Aziz, also a Sudairi Seven, had become convinced that nothing short of military action would deter Iran from becoming the world`s 10th nuclear power.
There is a growing convergence of opinion among the leaders of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt that only an aerial bombardment of 17 known nuclear sites could retard Iran`s nuclear ambitions by five to 10 years. One U.S. intel topsider remarked (not for attribution), 'If we can gain five years that way, it`s worth considering.' He speculated Iran`s moderate reformers could gain power in the interim,
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