Plausibility Check: Saudi Arabia the MidEast Nuclear Threat?

I was reading an article about the recent IAEA report on Iran's nuclear program today and wondered something. What if the roles were reversed between Iran and Saudi Arabia? What if Saudi Arabia, starting in the early 2000s, clandestinely started developing nuclear weapons to counter Iran/Syria? How would the US and the rest of the world react assuming suspicions develop the same way as they did for Iran? Is this scenario even possible?
 
You might need an earlier POD.

Maybe something happens that shows how terrible the Saudi military is--I'd sum up their performance at Khaljfi during the Gulf War as brave and spirited but rather inept, but the U.S. did the heavy lifting to keep the Iraqis from capitalizing on this--and the U.S. is harsher on the Saudis post-9/11.

(With no Desert Shield/Desert Storm, 9/11 is probably going to be butterflied away. Maybe no Desert Shield, but fighting breaks out anyway and the Iraqis are slapping the Saudis, Qataris, etc. around before the U.S. intervenes and crushes them per OTL. We still get lots of U.S. forces in the Land of the Two Mosques and things go from there.)

The Saudi government decides that nukes are needed as a deterrent if they can't rely on their own conventional military or U.S. assistance.

Of course, the Saudis could simply buy nukes or the infrastructure thereof from Pakistan/the nuclear scientist Khan and his cronies.
 
Read "Fear, Loathing and Gumbo on the Campaign Trail 1972". It's a TL by Drew on the board, it's fantastic. I can see the Saudi Arabia from that TL eventually trying to develop nuclear weapons...
 
Let's say Gore wins and takes up Iran's offer to help during the invasion of Afghanistan. He also doesn't let Saudi Arabia off the hook for 9/11. By 2011 Iran and Saudi Arabia's position are reversed. Pakistan probably isn't our "bff" either.
 
Let's say Gore wins and takes up Iran's offer to help during the invasion of Afghanistan. He also doesn't let Saudi Arabia off the hook for 9/11. By 2011 Iran and Saudi Arabia's position are reversed. Pakistan probably isn't our "bff" either.

this might be a very interesting TL
 
this might be a very interesting TL
Thank you. :) I thought of this being as part of a general "Demwank" TL where Gore wins in 2000 and then 2004, and Hillary wins in 2008 amidst a scandal for the Republican.
Then the crash comes and the Noughties are seen as the Twenties Mk. II. So many Tea Party Republican nominees to choose from come 2012! :eek:
 
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