The imbalance in the Middle East is due to one country – Israel – possessing nuclear weapons while the Arab states have none.
By Eric Begbie, Reposted from The Herald Scotland, April 1, 2026
THE only possible justification for the illegal attacks on Iran by the USA and Israel is the seemingly unfounded concern that Iran was still trying to develop a nuclear bomb (“Wars winners and losers”, The Herald, April 10.
If, for a moment, we assume that there was even a remote possibility of that concern being valid then, surely, there is only one logical negotiating avenue.
The sane route would be to insist that Iran ceased in its nuclear ambitions on the strict and internationally verifiable condition that Israel also destroyed its nuclear warheads and undertook to agree never to hold any weapons of mass destruction.
Throughout the Cold War, escalation was deterred by a balance between the USSR and the West in the game of ‘Mutually Assured Total Destruction’.
The same probably exists between Russia and Europe today (forget the increasing irrelevance of President Trump’s America). This nuclear balance also currently prevents a major conflagration between Pakistan and India.
However, there is no such balance in the Middle East. One country – Israel – possesses nuclear weapons. The Arab states have none.
This imbalance is what leads to the instability in the region and there are only two ways of restoring a balance.
The unthinkable option of allowing Islamic states to develop nuclear weapons or, alternatively, removing them from Israel.
Eric Begbie is a Scottish freelance Journalist living in the UK who writes for Stirling News
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