http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/13/2242995.htm?section=world<snip>
At least 11 of the 40 countries starting or expanding their nuclear programs are within the Middle East, among them Kuwait, Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Each of them has abundant reserves of oil and gas, so some nuclear proliferation experts are worried that their nuclear plans may be focused more on Iran's nuclear ambitions than they are on generating domestic electricity.
"Whenever a country goes down the path of acquiring the technologies required for nuclear weapons, the countries around it sit up and take notice but Iran is certainly well down that path," Dr Davies said.
"The intelligence estimate that came out in the US last year said that Iran has the technology, the engineering and the industrial capacity to produce nuclear weapons."
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