Could Iran nuke Saudi Arabia.......

[WCGreen]

Why you may ask....

Simply because they could remove a potential radical Arab state from their neighborhood, remembering that Iran considers itself Persian and not an Arab country....

Simply because they could remove from the market a vast amount of oil which would be a much more devastating blow to the US than trying to nuke an American city....

Simply because Iran is now more and more tied to the East than the West....

Just a few thoughts.....

For a sunny but cold Monday in January....

[Tom Rinaldo]

1. They won't nuke Mecca or the Holy lands surrounding it.

There other ways for the potential rivalry to play out.

[WCGreen]

2. No but the oil fields....

I am sorry I should have made that more clear....

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. I understood what you meant I think

It's just that I think it would be too "Hot" for even the most extreme potential Iranian leader to touch. Saudi Arabia is home to Mecca, that is enough reason to not start a nuclear war there I believe. With Israel at least, if they stay away from Jerusalem, they would be attacking a nation that makes it difficult for Muslims to visit holy sites, not one that hosts an annual pilgrimage to them. Just my opinion.

Iran could potentially over run or destroy targets in Saudi Arabia with conventional means if they wanted too. They have a vastly larger population. They could threaten to use nukes against Israel if the United States tried to intervene. But the thing is, either the United States or Israel would act against Iran before things spun that far down that road. If Iran gives enough indication that they may become a loose nuke armed cannon in the region, they will be struck by one or the other before reaching that point. I'm not saying that would help rather than make matters worse necessarily, just saying what I think would happen.

[leveymg]

3. Saudi Arabia is much more likely to nuke its own oil fields

Who knows, maybe we'll blame Iran if it happens? Posner also states that these Saudi-produced radiological "dirty bombs" present the greatest worry to US counter-terrorism, as they can be made from everyday radioactive waste and plastic explosive but could render Lower Manhattan or downtown DC uninhabitable for many years.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400062918/102-5587772-6294540?v=glance&n=283155

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com

The dust jacket of Gerald Posner's Secrets of the Kingdom calls it an "explosive study" of Saudi Arabia. In 14 of its 15 chapters that's not true, but in chapter 10 it is -- literally.

There Posner reports that Saudi Arabia has wired all of its major oil facilities with interlocking Semtex explosive charges that can be detonated from a single control point. Moreover, he says, the Saudis have blended radioactive materials into the Semtex so that detonation would not only destroy the facilities but also contaminate them beyond repair.

Why would the Saudis set off what's essentially a networked dirty bomb over their oil infrastructure? Because, according to Posner, they want to make certain that nobody could benefit from invading their country or taking down the ruling House of Saud. If the al Saud family goes, Posner writes, the world's petroleum-based economy goes with it.

Posner, the muckraking author of nine previous books, acknowledges that he cannot be sure this story is true. And indeed a Saudi official has questioned the credibility of the allegations. Posner attributes the story to conversations among Saudi officials intercepted by the National Security Agency and Israeli intelligence and compiled by the NSA into a file called "Petro SE" -- for "Petroleum Scorched Earth." It is possible, he concedes, that the Saudis knew their conversations were being overheard and concocted the doomsday scenario to ensure that the United States would come to their aid in a crisis. "What better incentive for Western powers, particularly the United States, to come to the aid of the House of Saud if it were under external or internal attack," Posner writes, "than to think that if it fell, like the shah of Iran did a quarter century ago, they would take the energy infrastructure of Saudi Arabia with them" and cause worldwide chaos?

The wealth of detail in Posner's account gives it an air of credibility. Moreover, Saudi Arabia does have a Nuclear Energy Research Institute, with scientists who are familiar with radioactive materials such as cesium that could be used in dirty bombs. Because (according to U.S. intelligence reports) the kingdom financed the development of nuclear weapons by Pakistan, it would have had access to nuclear material, if only through the clandestine network of Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan. And while Saudi Arabia is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has never agreed to an international inspection protocol.

[rman]

4. If Iran has nukes, who's to say Saudi Arabia doesn't have nukes?

Lack of evidence doesn't seem to be stopping people from asserting Iran has 'm - why wouldn't the same pertain to S.A.?

Even -if- Iran has nukes, they'd be silly to initiate mutual annihilation.

[WCGreen]

5. If the Saudi's do....

Yes that would be silly....

Just a few thought outside the box for a Monday....

[rman]

6. to put it in perspective

The premise for US and Israeli war talk re Iran seems to be that Iran should be -prevented- from obtaining nukes, by force if need be. Which is saying in so many words that Iran does at present have no nukes.

[Nutmegger]

8. Oh yeah, sure they could

but that would be stupid and would lead to an inevitable military conflict, if not, full war.

[High Plains]

9. What is the point of posting a question like this?

Given that Iran doesn't have any nukes.

Given that Iran hasn't demonstrated any enmity for Saudi Arabia.

Why not ask if pigs could fly?

[Neil Lisst]

10. No. Mecca. Medina. Not gonna happen.

All this brouhaha over Iran, when Pakistan already has nukes, and while its current strong man favors the US, Pakistan is much more likely to become inflamed with extremist nonsense than is Iran.

Iran has a healthy middle class, a healthy dose of pro-western citizens who do not want anything like a Taliban style government.

I do not want to see Iran with nuclear weapons, but the pseudo panic over it is little more than a Bush talking point.

[Igel]

11. Sure they could.

But they wouldn't.

The oil fields are in areas that are predominantly Shi'ite, and oppressed by the Sunnis. The Shi'a~Sunni divide is also important, not just the Persian~Arab divide. The Iranians may treat the minorities in Iran like crap, including the Arabs, but they're still Shi'a. Even if the Arabs look primarily to Najaf instead of Qom for inspiration.