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| Saudi Crown Prince warns 'we will follow suit' if Iran develops nuclear bomb | Saudi Crown Prince warns 'we will follow suit' if Iran develops nuclear bomb |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Saudi Arabia will develop a nuclear bomb if its arch rival Iran does so, the kingdom's 32-year-old crown prince has said. | |
| “Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible,” heir to the throne and Defence Minister Mohammad bin Salman told American CBS News in an interview due to air on Sunday. | |
| The comments come after a recent joint statement from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain condemning Iran for supposedly continuing to develop nuclear ballistic missiles. | |
| Iran agreed to curbs on its nuclear programme as part of a landmark deal reached with world powers in 2015. The United Nations agency monitoring Tehran's nuclear activity, which issues quarterly reports on the topic, has so far not identified any violations. | |
| In the sit down with Norah O'Donnell for CBS' 'Sixty Minutes', the powerful crown prince also doubled down on earlier comments comparing Iran's de facto leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to Adolf Hitler before World War II. | |
| "[Khamenei] wants to create his own project in the Middle East very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time," he said. | |
| "Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realise how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don't want to see the same events happening in the Middle East." | |
| Earlier this week Riyadh announced the creation of a new atomic energy programme as part of 'Vision 2030', the kingdom's ambitious effort to wean itself off dependence on oil following a plunge in global oil prices in 2015. | |
| The new policy would limit all nuclear activity to peaceful purposes in line with international law, a statement from the cabinet carried on the Saudi state news agency said. | |
| More follows… | More follows… |