Saudi Arabia Also in the Race of Becoming a Nuclear Power?

Satellite images collected recently by the United States suggests Saudi Arabia is developing its nuclear program, as it has found traces of ballistic missile factory. The development indicates, the kingdom’s growing military and nuclear ambitions under its 33-year-old crown prince.

The missile base near al-Watah, which is in the southwest of Riyadh, would now allow Saudi Arabia to manufacture its own ballistic missiles, fueling fears of an arms race against its regional rival Iran.

Nuclear expert, Jeffrey Lewis at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, says, “The possibility that Saudi Arabia is going to build longer-range missiles and seek nuclear weapons - we imagine that they can't. But we are maybe underestimating their desire and their capabilities”.

Though it is not clear from the satellite images, that whether the nuclear facility has already completed its operations or is functionally capable of manufacturing missiles now. The information gathered also suggests that the program was started in the year 2013.

In the recent past, the kingdom has taken more aggressive steps to empower its military establishments under its new crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Salman also has warned in an interview last year that Saudi Arabia would develop a nuclear bomb if Iran continues to do so. The crown prince has been Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia since 2015.

Saudi Arabia has been pursuing a nuclear power plant deal with the support of the United States, as it is allowing its nuclear fuel to be used. The kingdom’s reluctance only to use domestic fuel production has become a cause of concern among the US officials, as it suggests that the kingdom wants the atomic power project not only for civil use but also to encourage its weapon purposes.

The self-defence strategy with which Saudi Arabia is claimed to have built the ballistic missile factory also makes sense, given its rivals in the neighborhood. The kingdom faces Israel, which is armed with an advanced nuclear and missile program and on the other hand Iran, which has continued to develop its own abilities to make ballistic missiles.

Thus a functional ballistic missile production facility would allow Saudi Arabia to match with some of the domestic missile-making capabilities that Iran has developed over the years. The existence of a Saudi strategic rocket base at al-Watah first became public in the year 2013 after Jane’s Defense Weekly published satellite imagery of the military facility, which was suspected to have ballistic missiles purchased from China.