Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Tuesday that the kingdom will seek nuclear weapons if Iran was to obtain nuclear strike capabilities, German news agency DPA reported.
"Saudi Arabia has made it very clear that it will do everything it can to protect its people and to protect its territories," Minister Adel al-Jubeir told the outlet. He noted that if Tehran were to develop or acquire nuclear weapons, other Gulf states will follow.
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He urged taking a harsher international line against Tehran. "We believe that the Iranians only respond to pressure," he said, noting that Riyadh "will have to see" what US President-elect Joe Biden's policies will be with regard to Iran.
Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran have sparred through proxies in other countries, especially Yemen, in recent years.
Saudi Arabia, a major US ally, views itself as the leader of Sunni states in the Middle East, and is allied with countries including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have recently normalized their relations with Israel.
President-elect Joe Biden has said his administration would explore re-entering the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tuesday that Tehran was willing to return to the nuclear deal if Biden lifts the crippling sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic.
Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer said Monday that it would be a "mistake" for the incoming US administration to re-enter the deal.
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"I think it would be a mistake, and hopefully he will look at the Middle East as it is," Dermer said of Biden. "He will see the benefits of [the normalization] process, of how he can continue that process and not go back into the same deal. ... I think that when you have Israelis and Arabs who were saying to you, 'This is not a good idea; do not follow that path,' that should be taken into consideration."
Last week, former Biden aide Amos Hochstein told Channel 12 News that rejoining the Iran nuclear deal was "high on his agenda" and that the US president-elect would move to do so shortly after taking office.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
