WarSclerotic

‘The moment Iran goes nuclear, the Saudis will buy the bomb from Pakistan’ – Jerusalem Post.

(It’s worse than that. The Saudis won’t wait till Iran actually gets the bomb or tests a nuclear device. If Iran becomes a nuclear threshold state with the ability to breakout in a matter of weeks the Saudis will try to get at least the same capabilities. – Artaxes)

Director of Political-Military Affairs for the Defense Ministry, Amos Gilad, warns Iran could set off nuclear arms race in Arab world.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
03/12/2014 09:09

As soon as Iran gets a nuclear bomb, Egypt will develop its own nuclear weapon, and Saudi Arabia will purchase one from Pakistan, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, director of political-military affairs at the Defense Ministry, warned on Tuesday.

Speaking at a conference held by the Institute for Policy and Strategy, at IDC Herzliya, Gilad said, “The Arabs will not tolerate the Persians having the bomb. From the moment the Iranians get the bomb, the Egyptians have the resources, capability and know-how to achieve nuclear capabilities, and the Saudis will run to buy the bomb from the Pakistanis with a ‘member’s discount.'”

Iran is trying to get nuclear weapons, and won’t give up on this goal in talks with the powers, Gilad cautioned.

The Islamic Republic will not forfeit “any essential component in its quest for nuclear capabilities. This is true even if it agrees to reduce uranium enrichment for tactical needs, and maintaining the stability of the regime there. I’m disturbed that they [the international community] are going for an interim agreement mechanism. After six months, there will be another six months, and then there will be cracks in the wall of sanctions,” he added.

Israel has exercised a great deal of deterrent power, Gilad stated.

“The sense among our rivals is that we can deal with every aggregate of strategic threats,” he said.

The good news in the region, Gilad said, is that in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood had been beaten back by Field Marshal Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, meaning that a ring of Islamist powers has not formed around Israel.

The Egyptians have managed to block “between 90 to 95 percent of [smuggling] tunnels to Gaza, and are fighting a determined war against al-Qaida in Sinai,” Gilad said.

“In Turkey, [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan has been substantially weakened, and returned to his natural dimensions. The stability of the Hashemite Kingdom in Jordan is an optimistic point of light,” Gilad observed.

Turning his sights to Syria, Gilad said, “there is no military threat to the north. The Russians, the Iranians and Hezbollah allow the Assad regime to survive with artificial life-support. There is not a Syrian state, but there is a regime. And there’s a difficult humanitarian problem. I’d like to officially declare Syria dead, but the date of the funeral is not yet known.”

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