Saudi Arabia will develop nuclear bomb if Iran does, says crown prince

Saudi Arabia will developnuclear weapons if its arch rival Iran does, the kingdom'scrown prince said in remarks released on Thursday, raising theprospect of a nuclear arms race in a region already riven withconflict.

"Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, butwithout a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will followsuit as soon as possible," Prince Mohammed bin Salman told CBSin an interview that will air in full on Sunday.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom has been at loggerheads withrevolutionary ShiaIran for decades. The countries havefought a long-running proxy war in the Middle East and beyond, backing rival sides in armed conflicts and political crisesincluding in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Prince Mohammed, who also serves as Saudi defence minister,said last year that the kingdom would make sure any futurestruggle between the two countries "is waged in Iran,"promptingIranian threats to hit back at most of Saudi Arabia except theholy cities of Mecca and Medina.

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Riyadh has criticized the 2015 deal between world powers andTehran under which economic sanctions on Iran were lifted inreturn for the Islamic Republic curbing its nuclear energyprogram. U.S. sanctions will resume unless U.S. President DonaldTrump issues fresh "waivers" to suspend them on May 12.

The comments by Prince Mohammed, who at 32 is heir to thethrone, also have implications for Israel, another U.S. allywhich neither confirms nor denies the widespread assumption thatit controls the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.

Israel has long argued that, should Iran develop nuclearweapons, it would trigger similar projects among the Persianpower's Arab rivals and further destabilize the region.

It has never joined the 1970 nuclear Non-ProliferationTreaty (NPT) and has said it would consider inspections andcontrols under the NPT only if was at peace with its Arab
neighbours and Iran.

Civilian nuclear energy plan

Saudi Arabia is stepping up plans to develop a civiliannuclear energy capability as part of a reform plan led by PrinceMohammed to reduce the economy's dependence on oil.

The world's top oil exporter has previously said it wantsnuclear technology only for peaceful uses, but has left unclearwhether it also wants to enrich uranium to produce nuclear fuel,a process which can also be used in the production of atomicweapons.

The United States, South Korea, Russia, France and China arebidding on a multi-billion-dollar tender to build the country'sfirst two nuclear reactors.

Prince Mohammed's comments, ahead of a trip to the UnitedStates next week, could impact the bid by a consortium thatincludes Toshiba-owned Westinghouse.

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U.S. companies can usually transfer nuclear technology toanother country only if the United States has signed anagreement with that country ruling out domestic uraniumenrichment and the preprocessing of spent nuclear fuel stepsthat can have military uses.

In previous talks, Saudi Arabia has refused to sign any agreement that would deprive it of the possibility of oneday enriching uranium.

Reactors need uranium enriched to around five per cent puritybut the same technology in this process can also be used toenrich the heavy metal to a higher, weapons-grade level. This has been at the heart of Western and regional concerns over thenuclear work of Iran, which enrichesuranium domestically.

Riyadh approved a national policy for its atomic energyprogram on Tuesday, including limiting all nuclear activitiesto peaceful purposes, within the limits defined by internationaltreaties.