IN his recent statement Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief, stressed that "the leadership in Iran has become a real danger and all attempts over the past 40 years to rein it in have miserably failed." "We do not harbor any hostility toward Iran nor do we want its people to suffer any harm. But we must strike a balance with it as any imbalance will be exploited by Iran," he added. Iran is also a danger because of its rebellious conduct for decades now and its endeavor to undermine the stability and security of its neighbors and fragment their societies. In this regard, the Iraqi experience gives us a model of the Iranian influence, its exploitation of Iraq's resources, fueling sectarian divisions, and waging a war against the Iraqi state. In his statements, Prince Turki Al-Faisal zeroed it on the real danger threatening the Arab world and the Arabian Gulf region in particular and that is specifically Iran. And this is at a time when Iran has not possessed a nuclear weapon, then what will happen when it actually possesses one. At this point, observers can expect the arrogance and hegemony with which this rebellious regime will start dealing with other countries. The nuclear bombs would be looming over the heads of the people of the Arab countries, keeping them in a state of perpetual fear over the Iranian nuclear threat. The Arab countries are now surrounded by nuclear countries starting with India up to Israel via Pakistan. There is a strong probability that the new member of the nuclear club will be Iran, as explained by Prince Turki Al-Faisal, as he very well knows the hidden secrets of the region. He is warning that "someday, Iran will own a nuclear bomb, especially under the unrevised nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the Western powers." Talks about an arms race in the Middle East and warnings against it have come far too late. For, since the end of the Iraqi-Iranian war, Iran has been working on igniting an arms race and setting the whole region on fire, in line with its extremist ideology, which wants to cause an implosion of societies from within. Not only this, but it is supplying terrorist militias with strategic weapons, beginning with Hezbollah and ending with the Houthi militia. It has set up and is still establishing a militia in more than one Arab country. What has aggravated the situation further is the struggle for influence among Iran, Israel, and Turkey at the expense of the Arab World. This has caused the Israeli danger to recede in the overall Arab mind, despite the fact that the Israeli danger had been lingering in the Arab mind as the greatest danger in the region for decades. But Israel continued to deal with others as a state, even if it was hostile and an occupier. However, Iran and subsequently Turkey are dealing with others from the perspective of ideology and they always strive to create groups linked to them. Within this sphere, the Iranian groups have built a wall preventing the return of the Arab countries occupied by Iran to exercise their roles as real states. Their current status can be likened to the banana republics, where the means for a decent life have collapsed. As to Turkey, Iran had already set a model for it to follow, so it kept finding its way in building its parallel influence in several Arab countries. What is even worse is that the two countries have agreed to share the cake between them. As in Syria following the Astana Accords, to name a few. Were it not for Saudi Arabia and some of its sisterly Arab countries, which stood as a proud barrier in confronting the occupation schemes, Iran would have completed occupying all the four Arab capitals, as it brags. Egypt, Sudan, Libya, and even Tunisia would have been converted, due to the so-called Arab Spring, to regions under Turkish influence. The dangers we have just mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. They necessitate building an Arab defense capability. This is actually underway even though unannounced. Perhaps it is high time to build Arab nuclear knowhow and capability before the increasing nuclear danger in the whole region. According to my understanding, this has actually started. With regard to actual production, this will depend on the developments in the region in the near or distant future.
