Reason behind S. Arabia’s jealousy toward Iran

Saudi Arabia’s resentment of Iran is entering a brand new stage as their highly favored president, Donald Trump, will soon leave the White House.

The Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, has stated that the kingdom reserves the right to equip itself with nuclear weapons if the Islamic Republic of Iran cannot be stopped from building atomic arms.

“It’s definitely an option,” al-Jubeir said in a recent interview.

Jubeir, who is pretending as a fool, spoke as if Iran is on the path toward building nuclear weapons.

Obviously, he is definitely aware of the nature of Iran’s nuclear program. He knows that Iran’s nuclear activities are completely subject to the most careful inspections in the history of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency.

Al-Jubeir is making such comments just because he and certain other officials in the region are unsettled that President-elect Joe Biden has commented that he plans to return to the historic 2015 nuclear deal – JCPOA - that Trump illegally withdrew from and imposed the harshest ever sanctions in history against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

These remarks by al-Juberi, whose country cheered Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, are mainly intended to put pressure on the incoming U.S. president whose administration is legally tasked to honor the historic 2015 nuclear agreement.

As someone who has previously served as the Saudi ambassador to the United Nations in New York, al-Jubeir fully knows that the JCPOA is endorsed by the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and its observation is mandatory.

On cannot really find a convincing answer for such degree of enmity and jealousy toward Iran by Saudi rulers. Iran has never stated Saudi Arabia has no right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes under the watchful eyes of the UN nuclear watchdog.

In today’s world, many countries such as Japan, Finland, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Sweden, South Korea, and Argentina are making extensive use of nuclear energy to generate electricity. Iran, like certain other countries, also has a legitimate right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Additionally, Saudi Arabia has recently embarked on diversifying its energy resources, something which has been verified by the IAEA. This is considered to be its right as a signatory to the NPT.

However, Iran’s nuclear program has been politicized simply because it opposes the Israeli apartheid in Palestine. Amid the politicization of Iran’s nuclear program, Saudi Arabia does not miss any chance to vent its anger and hatred toward Iran and spread blatant lies regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

Further enmity and jealousy toward the Islamic Republic of Iran definitely will not make tribal officials in Riyadh appear strong.

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