Senior IDF General Predicts Nuclear Arms Race in Middle East if Iran Gets the Bomb

Israel is believed to be the only nuclear weapons state in the Middle East, with its arsenal estimated to number between 90 and 200 warheads. The country neither confirms nor denies possessing the weapons, in a policy known as nuclear ambiguity. Tel Aviv has also threatened to attack any regional nation it believes is working to develop a nuke.

Iran’s alleged efforts to build a nuclear bomb threaten not only Israel but the Middle East and the world as a whole, Tal Kelman, the Israeli Defence Force general in command of the IDF’s Iran-focused Strategy and Third Circle-Directorate, has said.

“There would be a nuclear arms race in the Middle East [if Iran got the bomb] because other countries would also want to obtain an atomic weapon,” Kelman suggested, speaking to a Bahraini newspaper on Sunday, with the Times of Israel providing an English-language translation of his comments.

The general warned that although Jewish State would prefer a diplomatic means to halting the Islamic Republic’s alleged pursuit of a nuclear bomb, it was also “preparing for other scenarios” if negotiations break down.

“We still believe in the need for a diplomatic solution and we believe that with the correct moves, which must be rigid – some of which have not yet been tried and some of which are diplomatic efforts – it is possible to return Iran to the negotiating table,” Kelman said. He did not elaborate on what these “rigid” moves might be.

“Part of my job is building Israeli plans and capabilities of a conflict with Iran. We don’t want conflict, we don’t want war. We want to resolve this issue diplomatically. But when you have in front of you a side that is aggressive, which is building military capabilities, we have to be preparing for other scenarios," the soldier said.

Kelman did not expand on these “other scenarios.” However, last month, Israeli media reported that a special $1.5 billion budget had been set aside for the IDF to prepare for a possible strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities from the country’s $17.8 billion defence budget for fiscal year 2022.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told UK media that his country was in a “cold war” with Iran which Tel Aviv planned to win by outspending Tehran and forcing it to collapse like the Soviet Union.

Iran has long denied any intention of building a nuclear weapon, pointing to its supreme leaders’ prohibitions on the pursuit of such arms –or weapons of mass destruction of any kind, and to its adherence to both the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and stringent nuclear inspections by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh dismissed the latest allegations in its direction by the US and its allies at the G20 summit in Rome, stressing that "Iran has repeatedly made statements that it will not seek to create nuclear weapons and that, moreover, this type of weapon has no place in the defence doctrine of the Islamic Republic, according to the decree of the Iranian Supreme Leader."

Amid repeated allegations that it is secretly pursuing nukes, and threats by Israel to attack its peaceful nuclear research sites, Tehran has asked why Tel Aviv seems to get preferential treatment from the IAEA and the international community in general despite its actual suspected arsenal of nukes and status as the Middle East’s only nuclear weapons state.