Iran nuclear program on “explosive” path -Saudi

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Iran is on an “explosive”  course in the Middle East with its pursuit of nuclear  enrichment and needs to clear up questions surrounding its  program, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal said yesterday.

Prince Turki, a former Saudi intelligence chief and former  ambassador to the United States, said Washington should not  take military steps against Iran’s nuclear program to reassure  Israelis over the peace process with Palestinians.

“No one denies that a nuclear Iran is a major international  danger, but claiming that the U.S. must take military action  against Iran to push forward the Israeli-Palestine peace  process is to attempt to harvest apples by cutting down the  tree,” he said.

Prince Turki, discussing the Middle East peace process in a  speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said  a war over Iran’s nuclear program would be “calamitous and not  just catastrophic.” It would turn back the clock on peacemaking  across the Middle East, from Iraq to Israel, he said.

“The Iranians have to be aware of the explosive nature …  of pursuing their present course of enrichment,” he said.

The United States last month announced plans to sell Saudi  Arabia up to $60 billion in military aircraft, a deal designed  to shore up Arab allies increasingly jittery over Iran’s  nuclear ambitions.

The United States and other countries are concerned that  Iran’s nuclear enrichment program is aimed at developing atomic  weapons, but Tehran denies that. It says the enrichment program  is to produce fuel for atomic power.

While the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty allows Iran to  enrich uranium, “everybody recognizes that they have not lived  up to the requirements” of the International Atomic Energy  Agency.