WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Iran is on an “explosive” course in the Middle East with its pursuit of nuclear enrichment and needs to clear up questions surrounding its program, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal said yesterday.
Prince Turki, a former Saudi intelligence chief and former ambassador to the United States, said Washington should not take military steps against Iran’s nuclear program to reassure Israelis over the peace process with Palestinians.
“No one denies that a nuclear Iran is a major international danger, but claiming that the U.S. must take military action against Iran to push forward the Israeli-Palestine peace process is to attempt to harvest apples by cutting down the tree,” he said.
Prince Turki, discussing the Middle East peace process in a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said a war over Iran’s nuclear program would be “calamitous and not just catastrophic.” It would turn back the clock on peacemaking across the Middle East, from Iraq to Israel, he said.
“The Iranians have to be aware of the explosive nature … of pursuing their present course of enrichment,” he said.
The United States last month announced plans to sell Saudi Arabia up to $60 billion in military aircraft, a deal designed to shore up Arab allies increasingly jittery over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The United States and other countries are concerned that Iran’s nuclear enrichment program is aimed at developing atomic weapons, but Tehran denies that. It says the enrichment program is to produce fuel for atomic power.
While the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty allows Iran to enrich uranium, “everybody recognizes that they have not lived up to the requirements” of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
