Saudi Arabia has enough uranium deposits for a nuclear weapons programme: Report

Saudi Arabia may have enough Uranium ore reserves to allow for the domestic production of nuclear fuel in the future. As per a Guardian report, Chinese geologists mapped the country’s uranium deposits as per a nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries.

Possible Nuclear Ambitions?

As per reports, being in possession of uranium ore deposits will cause worry in the international community as the ores will give Saudi Arabia the ability to develop its own atomic weapons programme. A survey report by Chinese geologists stated that the country had prepared for over a year in secrecy and this shows that Riyadh has the capability to produce almost 100,000 tonnes of uranium if it tapped into three major uranium ore deposits in the centre and northwest of the country.

The reason that the possibility of Saudi Arabia containing the means to develop its own nuclear weapons programme is because back in 2018 Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had stated that if Riyadh’s regional opponent develops a nuclear arsenal, Saudi Arabia would also be forced to do the same. The IAEA, UN’s Nuclear watchdog is also not permitted to carry out inspections in Saudi Arabia thereby increasing the Kingdom’s lack of transparency.

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Saudi Arabia’s regional rival on the other hand recently granted the nuclear watchdog to visit sites in Iran. Iran’s initial refusal to let UN nuclear watchdog inspectors visit the two sites caused immense worry among world leaders and jeopardised efforts to maintain the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran after the United States backed out of the deal in 2018.

As per the 2015 Iran Nuclear deal, Iran must limit its nuclear programme and instead they gain relief from sanctions. The US’s unilateral stepping back from the deal in 2018 came as a shock to many in the International community and since then the US has been trying to reimpose sanctions on Iran.

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