Mutually Assured Destruction has just gotten more mutual, with a story the BBC broke Thursday, about Saudi Arabia investing in a Pakistani nuclear weapons projects, and getting its cut in atomic bombs. Isn’t free enterprise a peach?
“A variety of sources” have told BBC Newsnight there are NATO intelligence reports that nuclear weapons made in Pakistan on behalf of Saudi Arabia are now sitting ready for delivery.
Interesting to recall now, as does the BBC, that former head of Israeli military intelligence Amos Yadlin told a conference in Sweden a month ago that once Iran gets the bomb, “the Saudis will not wait one month. They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring.”
Which makes you wonder if it wasn’t Yadlin feeding this story to the BBC.
Since 2009, according to the BBC, when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia warned visiting US special envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross that once Iran crossed the threshold, “we will get nuclear weapons,” the Saudis have been sending the Americans many signals of their going ahead with the plan.
Because who wants to live next door to a nuclear Iran?
It’s interesting to note that the fact that Israel has been is possession of hundreds of nuclear bombs never stirred the Saudis next door into hasty action. Is it because they trust Israel, but they deeply mistrust and resent the Iranians? Strong possibility, right?
Back in the late 1980s, the Saudis purchased dozens of CSS-2 ballistic missiles from China—in secret. These rockets are useless as conventional weapons, say the experts. Too inaccurate. But load them up with a nuclear warhead and it won’t really matter how accurate those things are – they’ll kill some Iranians. A lot of Iranians, actually. Enough of them to make the Islamic Republic think twice before it starts leaning on the Kingdom, making demands using their nuclear capability for leverage.
This summer experts at Jane’s reported a new Saudi CSS-2 base with missile launch rails aligned with Israel and Iran.
Just in case…