Iran sets off nuclear scramble in West Asia

As Iran races ahead with an illicit uranium-enrichment effort, nearly a dozen other West Asian nations are moving forward on their own civilian nuclear programs.

As Iran races ahead with an illicit uranium-enrichment effort, nearly a dozen other West Asian nations are moving forward on their own civilian nuclear programs. In the latest development, a team of eight UN experts was to return here on Saturday after a week-long trip to Saudi Arabia to provide nuclear guidance to officials from six Persian Gulf countries.

Diplomats and analysts view the Saudi trip as the latest sign of how Iran’s suspected weapons program has sparked a chain reaction of nuclear interest among its Arab rivals, which some fear will lead to a scramble for atomic weapons in the world’s most volatile region.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, sent the team of nuclear experts to Riyadh to advise the Gulf Cooperation Council on building nuclear energy plants. Together, the council members — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — control nearly half the world’s known oil reserves.

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Others who have sought IAEA’s advice in the past year are Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Yemen, and several North African nations.

None of the governments has disclosed plans to build nuclear weapons. But Iran’s 18-year secret nuclear effort and its refusal to comply with current UN Security Council demands has fostered fears that the Arab world may feel the need to counter a nuclear-armed Iran.

The same equipment can enrich uranium to fuel civilian reactors or, in time, atomic bombs.

“There is no doubt that countries around the Gulf are worried…about whether Iran is seeking nuclear weapons,” said Gregory L Schulte, the US representative to UN agencies in Vienna. “They’re worried about whether it will prompt a nuclear arms race in the region, which would be to no one’s benefit.”

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The US has long has supported the spread of peaceful nuclear energy under strict international safeguards. Schulte said America’s diplomatic focus remains on stopping Iran before it can produce fuel for nuclear weapons, rather than restricting other nations from developing nuclear power to produce electricity.

But those empowered to monitor and regulate civilian nuclear programmes around the world are worried.

Without singling out a ny nation, IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei warned on Thursday that the surge of interest in sensitive nuclear technology raises the risk of weapons proliferation.