Talk:Nuclear program of Saudi Arabia

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Amendments[edit]

I've made fairly extensive amendments to this interesting article. My objective is to try to provide more context, more references (plus read/check the existing ones) and to try to make it closer to NPOV. It's an interesting subject but I felt that the article wasn't quite presenting things in a entirely balanced way. Conforming to NPOV is of course mandatory.Sean.hoyland - talk 03:50, 25 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I also added a link to the article on the main Saudi Arabia page in the hope that it will bring more readers/editors.Sean.hoyland - talk 04:03, 25 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Judging by this article, there is no nuclear program to speak of in Saudi Arabia. What's the threshold for "nuclear program" articles on WP? Why not add an article on "Nuclear program of Botswana"? -- Slacker (talk) 04:48, 25 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That's good because if you had read the article before I amended it you might have thought that there was a nuclear program to speak of in Saudi Arabia. I didn't create the article. I'm just trying to fix it since it is here for the time being. Please nominate for deletion if you wish or even create an article about the nuclear program of Botswana (although uncyclopedia.org probably already have one).125.27.23.243 (talk) 09:18, 25 December 2007 (UTC) oops sorry, forgot to log in Sean.hoyland - talk 09:28, 25 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean that as a criticism directed at you; I know you were simply documenting an undocumented page. Do you agree that there is not enough notability for inclusion in WP? -- Slacker (talk) 14:48, 25 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There certainly is notability for inclusion, SA has expressed interest in a civilian nuclear program, and there are sources that suggest interest in a nuclear weapons program as well. As one of the largest countries in the region, it's fairly important that wikipedia cover any discussion of SA's interest in nuclear weapons or reactors. I apologize for any previous POV, not my intention, but it may have been driven by the sources I was reading at the time. Publicus 19:48, 16 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This is my first post on Wikipedia ever, so bare with me please. The article says that in 2012 it has been confirmed that SA would acquire nuclear weapons should Iran gets them. No reference for that confirmation! Thanks.Mshalfan (talk) 02:34, 2 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

To slacker: The main reason for alluding to a "Saudi Arabian nuclear program" is the massive and continuing Saudi investment in Chinese CSS-2 Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs) which have a Circular Probable Error of over a kilometer. That sort of CPE makes the CSS-2 only viable as a weapons system if the payload is a nuclear weapon in the hundreds of kiloton/megaton explosive yield range. Nothing else has enough destructive power to assure target destruction with the missile's low accuracy.

In effect, the Saudis poured hundreds of millions of dollars into several squadrons of missiles which are only credible threats as a nuclear weapons delivery system. Whether anyone cares to admit it, the Saudis have committed to becoming a nuclear weapons state by their investment in a delivery system that requires high-yield nuclear warhead payloads to be effective (well, if they chose, they might go with weaponized anthrax or another well-characterized biological payload with the same potential for dispersion and lethality). loupgarous (talk) 08:58, 23 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Links[edit]

>> Saudi nuclear weapons 'on order' from Pakistan(Lihaas (talk) 18:58, 30 November 2013 (UTC)).[reply]

NPOV issues[edit]

I've not read all the way through the article yet, but I've already found one glaring NPOV issue: a reference to the United States and Pakistan as "the two nuclear triads." This is almost certainly setting both countries as equally culpable in illicit nuclear proliferation. While much evidence has been assembled for the complicity of the United States government in helping Pakistan conceal its own nuclear weapons program as well as later efforts to obscure or entirely conceal Pakistani nuclear weapons technology proliferation to third countries by at least some agencies of the US Government (see Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons Walker and Co, New York, 2007), there's no credible evidence linking the United States government itself to illicit nuclear weapons proliferation activity (the only possible justification for calling it a "nuclear triad" - the term "triad" being a reference to organized crime). I'm definitely removing that phrase and rewording the sentence that contains it to conform to WP:NPOV, and will be vigilant for other NPOV issues. loupgarous (talk) 09:11, 23 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

public announcement of 02/15/2016 on "Russia Today" television program[edit]

This Youtube video has been making the rounds of the Internet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXuJkVPRjNI

I do not know who Dahham Al-‘Anzi is. I do not even know the provenance of the video--it could be a hoax, it could be a satirical comedy program. And as I do not speak the language, for all I know they could be talking about a recipe for chicken magluba. I have only the subtitles to go by, and I have no idea who wrote them, nor to what end.

That having been said, if the information in the video is correct, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has had nuclear weapons since 2014. If true, this is a frightening and unexpected new development in a very unstable part of the world. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:400:8000:34D0:BC92:5CF7:ABC:2DC7 (talk) 00:52, 29 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Suggested rename[edit]

Rename to Saudi nuclear program just like Soviet atomic bomb project--NadirAli نادر علی (talk) 02:05, 13 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Dor-on source[edit]

I don't think the section on an alleged Israeli assistance to the Saudis is reliable. While there are two references, they both ultimately point to the same person (Ami Dor-on) claiming that Israel is selling nuclear information to the Saudis. Both of the references are effectively rewrites of some article on this subject. There should be corrobation from other people in agreement for such a claim to be credible. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 14:48, 17 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]