The announcement by Iran on April 9 that it had entered the “industrial level” stage of nuclear fuel production, in defiance of a key UN sanction resolution demand of halting enrichment work, is a stark warning of what the future holds and which does not bode well.

For other than Iran, other nations in that region are looking at acquiring nuclear technology. Indeed within the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has already asked Russia to help it acquire nuclear energy, Egypt will not halt their nuclear development programme, Iran has reportedly offered to help Turkey produce nuclear energy and Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have discussed plans for a joint civil nuclear programme. The next step after this is always military use in the name of defence (whether known to the world or in secret like Israel and others).

But with the Middle East being so volatile in terms of regional tensions, all we need is a domino effect like this, that would have all the hallmarks to create a major catastrophic in future years for world peace. Indeed, add religious fundamentalism (on both sides) as the fuse, and almost anything is possible with those thinkers who consider dying as a martyr is a way to sainthood and heaven.

In the 21st century, the world therefore is definitely getting a far more unstable place by the year, and where it is unquestionably time that our politicians realised that they had to start investing in co-operation and not the continual purchase of weapons of mass destruction. Unfortunately, Western politicians are as bad as their counterparts throughout the world in this respect and where their inaction to transfer to co-operative means will cause unimaginable harm to the world at large over the next 25 years.
We should know, as our founders were some of the ones who created the “bomb” in the first place.

Dr DS Hill
Geneva