The Kids on the Block

What the world needs now is a mass demonstration of common sense, a universal willingness to sit back, take a deep breath and engage in a dialogue of disengagement from threats and bullying. So what do we get? The same old story, only more of it, and who needs it? If one kid on block has this new toy, all the other kids want it too. In this instance, not because this glittering new toy promising hours of fun should be available to all, but because the toy of which we speak is a direct threat to everyone and "everyone" sees ownership of the same threat as a possible deterence to utilization.

And so it would be, if one were dealing with civilized, rational beings, but we are not. The Middle East collective mind is an incendiary one, steeped in millennia of tribal warfare, bloodlust and the territorial imperative, made all the more urgent by the Islamic cant of religious intolerance within the geography itself. Interesting scenario: continual nuclear face-offs. With subsequent withdrawals in the interests of self-preservation. Until, inevitably, under the elevating cloud of a holy Armageddon, the trigger is pulled in religious exaltation.

And, it's game over.

Don't even think of it. Yet they are. "They" being, don't you know, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. How do we know this earth-shattering news? It comes from an impeccable source, for a report in The Times of Britain reveals that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed just that.

Iran started the ball rolling, defying international opinion, and the IAEA, and in the process making pretty well everyone nervous; countries near and far. Because just imagine, nuclear technology leading inevitably to the ultimate weapon in the hands of lunatic Islamists proud of their exclusive heritage and eager to export their religion to every reluctant and unwary country within its eventual grasp - or else, fellas. Does that mean that its fellow Muslim states might be immune to its tender blandishments? Hardly, the history of the Middle East should make that abundantly clear.

So sure, the six aspirants to nuclear technology are nervous too. Some of them can afford to develop the technology, some of them can not, since they've not got oil loot to burn. So why nuclear anyway, when the region is bursting with oil and has sufficient reserves of potential energy production for a long long time to come? For domestic purposes, of course, just like Iran. How could it be otherwise, since the IAEA, in its confirming statement reveals also that they believe these nations are interested in pursuing civilian nuclear energy programs. And in which event the IAEA is prepared to lend support to the projects.

"Some Middle East states, including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, have shown initial interest [in using] nuclear power primarily for desalination purposes," said Deputy Director-General of the IAEA Tomihiro Taniguch.

Experts believe that continued Iranian nuclear development was the impetus for the Arab interest in investing in nuclear power. "If Iran was not on the path to a nuclear weapons capability, you would probably not see this sudden rush [in the Arab world]," said Mark Fitzpatrick, a nuclear proliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

While the Arab nations claim that they plan to develop civilian nuclear energy, which is allowed under international law, experts speculate that they intend to use the technology to develop nuclear arms. The newly expressed nuclear interest marks a change in Arab policy, which previously had called for a nuclear-free Middle East. Saudi Arabian Prince Saud al-Faisal stated in an interview to The Times several months ago that the Saudis were against nuclear development in the Arab world.

No kidding. Heaven help us all.