Arabs-Iran.

Arabs Fear Iran, Growing Pressures on it, New York Times Says

Arab states are growing increasingly concerned about the prospect of a nuclear Iran as well as Iran's reaction in the region if the West intensifies the pressure on the Persian state to abandon its nuclear ambitions, the New York Times has reported, quoting Arabs diplomats and analysts. If the West applies a great deal of pressure on the Iranians over their contentious nuclear program, Tehran is not likely to stand idly but to retaliate, Egypt's Foreign Ministry spokesman Houssam Zaki stated, according to the Beirut leftist daily AS SAFIR Friday. He added that Iran will retaliate in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Anwar Majid Eshki, the director of the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies in Jeddah said, the degree of threat and level of fear of Iran in the Middle East has increased.

The paper observed that Iran's Arab neighbors fear Iran's nuclear ambitions are unstoppable. Many Arabs and the West believe Iran's nuclear program has military goals, while Tehran says its program is for strictly peaceful purposes. "Gulf states are now advised to develop strategies based on the assumption that Iran is set to become a nuclear power," said Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, political science professor, United Arab Emirates University. The paper quoted the analyst as saying Iran's nuclear program will thus prompt a regional arms race, such as Arab invitations to Western nuclear powers to set up military bases in their countries and environs as deterrents. It cited the US Navy base in Manama as an example. "Iran is now forcing everyone in the region to join the arms race," Abdullah stressed.

Others, meanwhile, encourage a backbreaking strike on Iran, the paper continued. According to Abdulaziz Sager, a Saudi who heads the Gulf Research Center in the UAE, it would be better that the West or Israel attack Iran before it fully develops its nuclear capacities. He argued that the Middle East can tolerate a limited retaliation from Iran, which would be better than having to live with "Iran's permanent nuclear hegemony" in the region.