Could U.S.-Saudi Deal Push Nuclear Weapons Development?

Sometime in the 1960s, Israel became the first nation in the Middle East to possess a nuclear bomb. Thanks to assistance from France, Israel created a nuclear deterrent intended to allow the fledgling nation to survive while surrounded by nations that hate its existence. Opponents of Israel’s nuclear ambitions warned that these efforts could lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. However, perhaps due in part to Israel’s efforts to intentionally avoid publicly acknowledging and flaunting its nuclear capability, that arms race never began.

Yet times have changed, and a nuclear-armed Iran is now believed by many to be inevitable. “Last September, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman created international headlines when he said if Iran, his country’s regional rival, manages to get a nuclear bomb, then Saudi Arabia will need one, too” (Deutsche Welle, May 25, 2024). Saudi Arabia is currently working on a major agreement with the United States, and many analysts believe the deal will include U.S. assistance for the Saudis in developing peaceful nuclear power as they seek to reduce their dependence on oil. However, other analysts admit that “technology used for uranium enrichment produces fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but can also result in uranium suitable for nuclear weapons.” Saudi Arabia has threatened to walk away from any U.S. deal that does not allow it to enrich its own uranium.

Today, many nations are rearming, and more of those arms are nuclear in nature. Jesus said that the end of the age would be a time when man’s destructive capacity had grown so great that, “unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:22). Mankind’s capability to destroy all life on earth only came with the development of atomic weapons at the end of World War II, and the devastating power of nuclear weapons has only grown since then. As we view our modern world today, the words Christ spoke almost 2,000 years ago become even clearer. To learn more about this sobering topic, read or listen to The Middle East in Prophecy.