If Iran is able to obtain nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia will seek to acquire them as well, the kingdom’s crown prince declared Wednesday.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman expressed “concern” about the possibility of a nuclear Iran, Saudi Arabia’s longtime rival, during a wide-ranging interview with Fox News host Bret Baier.
“Okay, we are concerned [about] any country gets nuclear weapons. That is a bad action,” said Salman. “You don’t need to get nuclear weapons because you can’t use them even if you can get nuclear weapons.”
The crown prince argued that if Iran were able to acquire nuclear weapons and its authoritarian regime decided to use them, the country would soon be at war with “the world.”
Salman expresses “concern” about Iran getting nuclear weapons.FOX News
“The world cannot see another Hiroshima,” Salman said. “If the world sees 100,000 dead, that means you’re at war with the whole world.”
While calling the development of nuclear weapons a “futile endeavour,” Salman warned that his country would seek to develop such devastating technology as well if Iran was able to build or acquire a nuclear warhead.
“If they get one, we have to get one,” he warned, citing “security reasons” and to “balance power in the Middle East.”
“But we don’t want to see it,” added Salman.
The Saudi Arabian leader has vowed that his country will seek nuclear weapons if Iran is able to obtain them. FOX News
Relations between Riyadh and Tehran have been strained since an agreement brokered by China in March re-established diplomatic ties between the two Middle Eastern countries.
“We didn’t choose China, China chose to be the broker to make it happen,” Salman said of the deal, which some have described as a symbol of Beijing’s growing international influence and the decline of US influence under the Biden administration.
Since the China deal, President Biden, who criticized Salman during the 2020 presidential campaign and threatened that Saudi Arabia would “pay the price” and be made a “pariah” for the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has tried to broker it. a similar agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia that would see normal relations between the two Middle Eastern powers.
Salman said Saudi Arabia was getting “closer” to an agreement with Israel that would normalize relations between the two countries. VIA REUTERS
“Every day we are getting closer, it seems for the first time that is really serious,” Salman said of the negotiations.
“For us, the Palestinian issue is very important,” added the crown prince, stressing the importance of concessions given to the Palestinian people as part of any framework agreement.
“We have to finish that part, and we have good negotiations going on until now. We have to see where we are going. We hope it will reach a place that will make life easier for the Palestinians and make Israel a player in the Middle East.”
Regarding the brutal killing of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, which the CIA reportedly concluded was ordered by the crown prince, Salman said “whoever was involved” in his killing was serving time in prison and must “face the law.”
“We take all the legal measures that any country takes … We did that in Saudi Arabia and the case was closed,” he said. “In addition, we are trying to renew the security system to ensure that this kind of mistake does not happen again, and we can see in the last five years that nothing of that kind has happened. It is not part of what Saudi Arabia does.”
Salman went on to admit that his government has “bad laws,” which sometimes lead to people being sentenced to death for dissent, but he claimed his cabinet was working to reform Saudi Arabia’s judicial system “by the book.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
