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Has a Middle East Nuclear Arms Race Begun?
(The Hill) Jonathan Schachter - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Congress in 2015 that the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) "won't be a farewell to arms. It would be a farewell to arms control." Saudi Arabia's recent demands for assistance with uranium enrichment and other elements of the nuclear fuel cycle is the latest evidence that the Middle East nuclear arms race has begun. In August 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that, with the help of China, the Saudis have built a facility to process uranium ore. In December 2021, the Journal revealed that the kingdom, again with Chinese assistance, is producing its own ballistic missiles. The way to halt and even reverse the Middle East nuclear arms race requires U.S. leadership. First, it is well past time to end Iran's nuclear weapons program. The U.S. should work with its European allies to activate the JCPOA's snap-back mechanism, which would reimpose the UN arms embargo on Iran and a complete ban on Iranian uranium enrichment. It also would block the lifting of the UN missile embargo scheduled for October. The U.S. should lead the imposition of economic, diplomatic and military pressure on Iran until it complies with its international nuclear obligations. The U.S. should make it clear that it is unequivocally committed to using force to end Iran's nuclear weapons program if Tehran refuses to do so. Without a credible American military threat, a genuine diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear problem never will be possible. Second, the U.S. should provide its allies and partners in the Middle East with the diplomatic and military support necessary both to deter Iran and to instill in them sufficient confidence to obviate their own pursuit of nuclear weapons. The writer, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, served as foreign policy adviser to the prime minister of Israel from 2015 to 2018 and worked on exposing the Iranian nuclear archive.