"Six Arab States Join Rush To Go Nuclear"

Those six states are Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. In all six cases, they are talking only of developing civilian nuclear energy programs, as international law permits that. But no one doubts that this sudden interest in nuclear power has military implications.

	The IAEA logo.

Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies assumes these states want a "security hedge" vis-à-vis Tehran. "If Iran was not on the path to a nuclear weapons capability you would probably not see this sudden rush." It also marks an abrupt reversal among states which until very recently had called for a nuclear-free Middle East, and for Israel to disarm.

Comment: One can't help but get a certain grim satisfaction from this development. It suggests that however much the Arabic-speaking leaders inveigh against Israel and its nuclear weapons, they know at base that not it but Iran threatens them. Or why, all these decades, would they not have responded in like fashion to Israel's well-known nuclear capability? (November 4, 2006)