‘All Bets Are Off’ If Iran Develops Working Nuclear Weapon, Saudi FM Says

If Iran develops a working nuclear weapon then the Arab states in the Gulf will work together to increase their security, according to Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. “If Iran gets an operational nuclear weapon, all bets are off,” Prince Faisal told the World Policy Conference in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. He called the neighborhood in which Iran, Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states are located a “dangerous space in the region,” adding that “you can expect that regional states will certainly look towards how they can ensure their own security.” His remarks come following the breakdown of talks between Iran and the world powers on resurrecting the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement which say the Islamic Republic curbing its nuclear program in exchange for a relaxing of international sanctions. Iran has said consistently that its nuclear program is meant for civilian  purposes, though it has been, for more than a year, violating the terms of the accord, including generating a stockpile of enriched uranium that is over 19 times the limit that appears in the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,  enriching uranium to levels much higher than those agreed to in the deal, including to  a purity of 60% at its underground Fordow nuclear site. Iran began to violate the terms of the nuclear deal after the United States pulled out of it in 2018.