Iran
Sarah Wollaston (Totnes, Conservative)
Is it not in Israel's gift to de-escalate the situation and move away from a nuclear arms race by declaring its own nuclear capability?
Malcolm Rifkind (Kensington, Conservative)
That might be an option, but the political reality is that Israel has had nuclear weapons for 30 years and that has not led to Arab countries threatening seriously to develop their own nuclear capability. The reason the Saudis and others have reacted in such a hostile way to Iran is that they know that Iran is intent on geopolitical dominance in the Gulf region by being the only country of the Muslim world, other than Pakistan, to have nuclear weapons capability or the reality of it. I believe that we cannot rule out a military response because the potential for such a response must be part of the equation.
