Ahmed S. Hashim

The potential for a nuclear-weapons buildup increases tensions in the Middle East, argues Ahmed S. Hashim in the following viewpoint. Israel is thus far the only Middle Eastern nation that has nuclear weapons capability, he maintains, and for various reasons, Iran and the Arab nations have largely not been able to develop their own nuclear power. But in the 1980s and 1990s, Iraq, a professed enemy of Israel, came very close to building its own atomic bomb, Hashim reports. Intervention from Israel and the international community has slowed Iraq’s weapons development. However, Hashim points out, in May 1998, when India (an Israeli ally) and Pakistan (a Muslim nation) both emerged as nuclear powers, many analysts expressed concerns about the possibility of a future “Islamic bomb.” Hashim is a...