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The kingdom earlier this month signed a memorandum of understanding to work with South Korea on the development of nuclear energy and has previous nuclear-related deals with France, Argentina and China. Thanks to its vast oil wealth, Saudi Arabia has the resources to pursue its own nuclear program. Prince Turki al-Faisal, an outspoken member of the Saudi royal family who previously served as the country’s intelligence chief, hinted that continued nuclear activity by Iran could trigger a regional arms race, telling the BBC that “if Iran has the ability to enrich uranium to whatever level, it’s not just Saudi Arabia that’s going to ask for that.” It is not just Israel - widely believed to have nuclear weapons of its own - that is worried Arab countries bristle as well.Īn Iranian technician walks through the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the city of Isfahan, Iran, February 3, 2007. This so-called “breakout period” ranges from one year to several. The reports of a deal all involve leaving Iran just out of reach of a weapon, keeping its enriched uranium but needing more for weaponization. These kinds of complexities may coax the West to get back together with a nation whose political vocabulary labels the United States “the Great Satan.” Nuclear dominoes And while Iran’s theocracy can seem oppressive to the Western eye, oppressive religious rule in Saudi Arabia has not kept the US from making the kingdom a close ally. Iran’s goal is to help fellow Shiites and strengthen its own influence, but it also presents its actions as part of the world’s fight with what it casts as a toxic distortion of Islam. In a new twist, Iran is proving critical to helping the Shiite-led authorities in Iraq fight Islamic State militants.

Iran and Washington cooperated closely against Afghanistan’s Taliban in 2001. In addition, Iran is believed to indirectly back Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have in recent months taken over much of the country and displaced the government from the capital, Sanaa.īut there have also been common interests with the West. Hezbollah occasionally embroils Lebanon in ruinous conflict with Israel as well, and is blamed for terrorist attacks from Bulgaria to Buenos Aires. It has kept Syria’s Bashar Assad - whose minority Alawite sect is a Shiite offshoot - in power by direct financial backing and by having Hezbollah fight alongside his forces. This has helped Lebanon’s Shiites - who enjoy a plurality over the Sunni Muslims, Christians and the Druse - dominate the country. It has a powerful proxy militia in Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah group, which it arms, funds, trains and guides. Majority Persian Iran has cast an enormous shadow on the neighboring Arab world, in part by playing on the centuries-old split between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. The economic deals that follow will likely be a basis for greater ties with the world - especially if post-nuclear-deal Iran takes steps to further open its economy. “Because the country’s infrastructure is literally 30 years behind, every sector or commodity is open … Iran is already preparing for this.”įor now, the short-term impact is ending the sanctions, which hammered the Iranian currency and caused unemployment and misery. “Many people are already making plans for Iran’s integration into the regional and world economy, particularly the Europeans and the Asians, who see Iran as an unprecedented opportunity to do business,” said Dubai-based geopolitical analyst Theodore Karasik. An Iranian worker assembles a car at the Iran Khodro automobile manufacturing plant, just outside Tehran, Iran, January 18, 2014.