Iran’s Pursuit of “Street Cred”: A Reply from Riyadh

britannica.com
Caryle Murphy

[The following, from Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent Caryle Murphy, is in reply to Josh Xiong’s post on “Iran’s Pursuit of ‘Street Cred’” and Barbara Slavin’s response to Xiong.]

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Iran is seeking to acquire the capability of producing nuclear weapons—which is different from actually making and stockpiling those weapons—for reasons that are often overlooked by outsiders.

First of all, Iranian leaders see other countries in their neighborhood making themselves into nuclear powers—and not paying a price for it. These leaders ask themselves: “If nations like Pakistan and India can have a nuclear weapons capability, then why shouldn’t Iran, home of an ancient and proud civilization?”

Second, the current Iranian regime desires greater regional clout vis-a-vis Israel, which it regards as its main rival for influence. Tehran’s international prestige—though not necessarily its popularity—would certainly increase if it had a nuclear weapons capability.

Third, Iranian leaders chafe at what they regard as a double-standard in the Western-led, global anti-proliferation regime, which is most obviously demonstrated in West’s turning a blind eye to Israel’s atomic weapons capability while insisting that Iran cannot have the same ability.

As for Saudi Arabia, the leader of the Sunni Muslim world, where I’m based, it views with some alarm the prospect of Shiite Muslim Iran acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. It definitely does not want this Iranian ambition to succeed. However, it is not happy with the confrontational approach that the U.S. administration has been employing with Iran. It prefers a more diplomatic approach.

Last December, for example, King Abdullah invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (above) to attend the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. It was the first time a sitting Iranian president received such an official Saudi invitation. And in June, Abdullah had former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani seated with him on the dias at an international interfaith conference in Mecca.