Eye on Iran, Rivals Pursuing Nuclear Power

[jpak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/world/middleeast/15sunnis.html?ei=5065&en=19e13d3ae897abc3&ex=1177214400&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

Two years ago, the leaders of Saudi Arabia told international atomic regulators that they could foresee no need for the kingdom to develop nuclear power. Today, they are scrambling to hire atomic contractors, buy nuclear hardware and build support for a regional system of reactors.

So, too, Turkey is preparing for its first atomic plant. And Egypt has announced plans to build one on its Mediterranean coast. In all, roughly a dozen states in the region have recently turned to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna for help in starting their own nuclear programs. While interest in nuclear energy is rising globally, it is unusually strong in the Middle East.

“The rules have changed,” King Abdullah II of Jordan recently told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “Everybody’s going for nuclear programs.”

The Middle East states say they only want atomic power. Some probably do. But United States government and private analysts say they believe that the rush of activity is also intended to counter the threat of a nuclear Iran.

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[jody]

1. The U.S. should have spent the trillion $ wasted in Iraq on research for safe energy then given the

results to the world.

Then no country would have to build nuclear power plants with their attendant risks.