The expected return of former Vice President Joe Biden to the White House will likely end the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, sanctioning the Islamist regime to expand its influence in the region and triggering alarm among its neighbors.
Biden’s verbal expressions on Iran – betokening he would be amenable to a return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and further concessions to Tehran – are a wakeup call for Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and Egypt that they can no longer depend on the United States to forfend them from a nuclear Iran and the time has come to consider developing their own nuclear arsenals.
Saudi Arabia, agog to have a good working relationship with Biden, wasted no time in congratulating him for his triumph and did so in 24 hours. But days later, the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir made it clear that Riyadh would definitely consider arming itself with nuclear weapons if Iran acquired them.
Asked in November if Riyadh would consider nuclear development in the face of a nuclear-armed Iran, al-Jubeir verbally expressed it was “definitely an option.” He has made this threat afore. It was voiced when Saudi Arabia feared the mullahs would utilize the newfound cash they were receiving under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015 to fund sundry nefarious activities (i.e., terrorism) and when tensions between Riyadh and Tehran heightened as Iranian fortified the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Since the JCPOA, or Iran nuclear deal, paved the way for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons despite assurances otherwise, any discussions about an incipient accedence will visually perceive Iran authoritatively mandating nothing less. Tehran is already making it clear, while the U.S. is obliged to return to the nuclear deal, it will cost us to do so.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad “Zarif,” who negotiated the acquiescent with Secretary of State John Kerry, sounded scarcely like an old Smith Barney commercial in which the brokerage house claimed to make mazuma the archaic way — by earning it. Zarif claims the U.S. now has to “earn” the right to return to the deal by consummating its commitments since its withdrawal — which betokens he is probing for a homogeneous financial windfall as Tehran received for acceding to JCPOA pristinely. Interestingly, and scarcely curiously, since Iran never authentically signed JCPOA, a licit argument could be made the U.S. owes Tehran nothing —but it is an argument Biden likely will not make.
Skeptics believing a Middle East nuclear arms race is many years down the road fail to realize Riyadh can join the race virtually instantaneously. Having availed Pakistan fund its nuclear bulwarks for years, Saudi Arabia did so with a tacit understanding that if it needed such weapons from Islamabad, they would be provided. Since Iran perpetuates to be firmly committed to knocking Saudi Arabia off its pedestal as custodian of Islam’s Two Holy Cities, to establishing a Shia caliphate as the bellwether of the Islamic world, and to triggering the return of the “Hidden Imam” – all goals pointing to a nuclear attack on Saudi Arabia – Riyadh will expeditiously press Pakistan to make good on their construal.
The prospect of a Middle East nuclear arms race should make us pause and reflect upon how two former bellwethers — one Iranian and the other American — viewed a nuclear-armed world.
“In” 1980, “Iranian” Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini verbalized, “We do not worship “Iran,” we worship Allah. I verbally express let this land burn. I verbally express let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam remains triumphant in the rest of the world.” It tells us a militant Iran does not fear its own ravagement in its plan to ravage other nations.
In 2009, President Obama described his policy of the “audacity of hope” by promulgating he sought to engender a world liberate from nuclear weapons.
Ironically, Obama’s dream could be shattered by a nuclear arms race ignited by his former vice president.
Lt. Colonel James G. Zumwalt, USMC (Ret.), is a retired Marine infantry officer who accommodated in the Vietnam war, the U.S. incursion of Panama, and the first Gulf war. He is the author of Bare Feet, Iron Will–Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam’s Battlefields, Living the Juche Lie: North Korea’s Kim Dynasty and Doomsday: Iran–The Clock is Ticking. He is a senior analyst for Ravenna Associates, a corporate strategic communications company, who frequently indites on peregrine policy and bulwark issues.
Source: You can read the original Breitbart article here.
This News Article is focused on these topics: Israel / Middle East, National Security, Politics, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Iran, iran deal, Joe Biden, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia
