Uniqueness and link: Relations are low with Saudi Arabia but mendable – supporting Bahrain derails reconciliation
Ottaway 11 (Marina, Senior Associate Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment, “Bahrain: Between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” April 4, 2011, )
But U.S. concerns in dealing AND take precedence right now.
Link: Bahrain is an existential threat to US-Saudi relations because it provides Iran with more power
International Crisis Group 11 (POPULAR PROTEST IN NORTH AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST (VIII):
BAHRAIN’S ROCKY ROAD TO REFORM, July , p. 21)
For reasons noted above, Saudi Arabia AND but not in Bahrain.
Impact: Deterioration of relations with the US leads Saudi Arabia to a nuclear sharing agreement with China
Lippmann August 5 (Thomas W. Lippman is a senior adjunct scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, 2011, “Saudi Arabia’s Nuclear Policy,” SUSRIS, )
So let us suppose that Saudi Arabia’s AND realm of possibility.
Saudi prolif leads to fast regional prolif
Center for Contemporary Conflict 2004 (“Conference on WMD Proliferation in the Middle East: Directions and Policy Options in the New Century” )
James Russell from the Naval Postgraduate School AND to ensure U.S. engagement?
Rapid proliferation increases the risk of nuclear war in 5 ways—and the outbreak of a regional nuclear war in the Middle East is a 5 in 6 probability
Allison, Harvard JFK professor and Belfer Center Director, 2006:
(The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Fall, Graham, p. 20-21)
Were a cascade of nuclear proliferation AND regional nuclear war.