Saudi Arabia May Pursue Nuclear Weapons If ‘Nefarious’ Iran Develops Bomb

With Iran set to receive tens of billions of dollars as part of its reported compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreed upon in July, the regime will use its newly-obtained cash to fund “nefarious activities,” Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir warned on Tuesday.

Jubeir also did not dismiss the possibility that Saudi Arabia would pursue a nuclear weapon. When asked by Reuters if Riyadh would respond in the event Iran developed an atomic weapon, Jubeir responded that his country would do “whatever we need to do in order to protect our people.”

“I don’t think it would be logical to expect us to discuss any such issue in public and I don’t think it would be reasonable to expect me to answer this question one way or another,” the Saudi Foreign Minister added.

The regime in Tehran, which maintains the goal of exporting its Islamic revolution worldwide, continues to fund terrorist organizations, and also supplies troops and aid to the Assad regime’s defense in Syria.

Iran continues to support the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Hezbollah, whose leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has sworn loyalty to the Ayatollah. Iran also supports militant Houthi forces in Yemen and revolutionaries in Bahrain. Several Gulf nations have accused Iran of meddling in their states’ internal affairs.

“It depends on where these funds go,” Jubeir said of Iran’s coming cash. “If they go to support the nefarious activities of the Iranian regime, this will be a negative and it will generate a pushback. If they go towards improving the living standards of the Iranian people then it will be something that would be welcome,” he added.

Iran and Saudi Arabia indefinitely slashed diplomatic ties following Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric, which was subsequently followed by rioters in Tehran firebombing and ransacking Saudi diplomatic buildings.

Since then, several Sunni nations have joined Saudi Arabia in either condemning the regime or breaking off ties entirely with Tehran.

Jubeir stated his concern that an American withdrawal from the region would leave a “vacuum” later filled by rogue actors.

“If an American decline were to happen or an American withdrawal were to happen, the concern that everybody has is that it would leave a void, and whenever you have a void, or a vacuum, evil forces flow,” he told Reuters.