GCC pushes for atomic programme

Saudi Arabia said yesterday Iran’s nuclear programme was an extra burden for the Middle East, but Gulf Arab allies had the right to their own atomic ambitions.
Arab foreign ministers of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) met in Saudi Arabia to discuss progress in plans agreed in December for a joint civilian atomic programme that has raised fears in certain quarters of a nuclear race with Iran.
Lady Barbara Thomas Judge, chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, said nuclear energy’s relevance was rising in a world beset by global warming and shrinking oil supplies — even among countries with the largest reserves.
“Why should you talk about nuclear energy in a place where oil and gas flows like milk and honey? The answer is security of supply and the problem of climate change,” Judge said during the recent Forbes magazine’s CEO Middle East forum in Doha.

Gulf Times