After the deal that permitted Iran to enrich uranium, a senior United Arab Emirates (UAE) official told Ed Royce (R-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the UAE will also seek to enrich uranium. UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef-al-Otaiba told him that the UAE is no longer bound by its previous nuclear agreement with the U.S., in a troubling sign of a regional nuclear arms race.
“He told me, ‘your worst enemy has achieved this right to enrich. It’s a right to enrich now that your friends are going to want, too, and we won’t be the only country,'” Royce told The Associated Press. Saudi Arabia has also indicated that they are likely to take part in attempting to enrich uranium.
The 2009 agreement with the UAE promised U.S. aid to the Gulf state in producing nuclear energy in return for the UAE agreeing not to enrich uranium or reprocess spent fuel to extract plutonium. Both are processes to build nuclear weapons. Though the UAE has not formally changed its commitments in relation to the agreement, Royce revealed that the ambassador said the UAE “no longer felt bound” by the agreement. “I took that to mean that they had the right to do that and that it was under consideration.”
Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) said during a speech in August against the Iran deal: “imagine how a country like the United Arab Emirates – sitting just miles away from Iran across the Strait of Hormuz – feels after they sign a civilian nuclear agreement with the US…to not enrich or reprocess uranium?”
The US State Department declined to comment to the report.
“And there shall be wars and rumors of wars.” Matthew 24:6
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