On: US to announce deal allowing Saudi Arabia a nuclear programme, reports say

It is a most encouraging development to read that the United States, in its wisdom, has at last moved to address the profound and persistent anxiety of its Saudi allies. For years, the Kingdom has laboured under the reasonable apprehension that its regional position might be rendered insecure, lacking as it does the very instruments of civil energy production which its neighbour, Iran, has so diligently pursued. This disparity in technological capacity is, as all sensible persons agree, a source of instability.

It therefore seems a gesture of the purest diplomatic charity to propose the transfer of nuclear expertise and materials. One can only admire the foresight. The objections raised by certain lawmakers, or by the state of Israel, are understandable from a narrow perspective, but they fail to grasp the broader arithmetic of trust. If we are to prevent the proliferation of weapons, we must first proliferate the means to make them; it is a simple axiom of statecraft. To withhold such a programme would be to imply a distrust of Saudi intentions, which would be both ungenerous and contrary to the spirit of our alliance. Far better to furnish them with the capability, and to rely, as we always have, upon their solemn assurances regarding its use. The inspection protocols, which will doubtless be both rigorous and entirely respectful of Saudi sovereignty, will ensure that every gram of fissile material is accounted for, much as one accounts for the stones in a desert.

I confess, I look forward to the day when every nation with the requisite funds and a suitable stretch of empty desert may cultivate its own peaceful atomic garden. It is the surest path to a lasting and luminous peace.