One Of President Obama's Legacies: A Mideast Nuclear Arms Race:

Updates

February 17, 2014: it looks like Iran is pursuing a second nuclear reactor in an oil-for-nukes swap with Russia. Upon hearing that, John Kerry's first response: "Well, somebody is going to have to buy a lot of carbon credits, aren't they?" LOL. By the way: google Iran in the blog and one will find that 2012 was a big year for posting stories about Iran. Looks like all that dithering has simply moved Iran closer to a really, really big stoyr.
 

Original Post

The Daily Beast is reporting:

President Obama wants an agreement with Iran to prevent a Middle Eastern nuclear arms race, but it’s pushing Saudi Arabia toward its own nuke program. 

Last month, America’s top Iran negotiator Wendy Sherman had some bad news for ambassadors from America’s Arab allies. In a meeting with envoys from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other Gulf states, Sherman said that any bargain with Iran would likely leave Tehran, the Gulf states long-time enemy, with the capacity to enrich uranium, according to U.S. officials briefed on the encounter.

Sherman regularly briefs these allies after diplomatic talks with Iran, but in recent weeks those conversations have been different. While most of America’s Middle East allies—with the exception of Israel—have publicly supported the current Iran negotiations, behind the scenes, envoys from the region have expressed grave concerns that Iran could be left with a break out capacity to make the fuel for a nuclear weapon at a time of their choosing.

And now, one of the countries in the region without a full-blown nuclear programs—Saudi Arabia—may be changing its mind. Riyadh has a long-standing interest in nuclear power. But Western and Israeli intelligence services are starting to see signs that this interest is growing more serious, and extends into nuclear enrichment.

Until recently, the pursuit of nuclear enrichment—or the fuel cycle—was considered by arms control experts as a tell-tale sign of a clandestine weapons program. Nuclear fuel is sold to all members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but it’s far more costly to build the infrastructure and produce it indigenously.

Saudi Arabia appears to be getting more serious about going down that path.