While Saudi Arabia says its interest in nuclear power is for future energy security, looming over its endeavor is the threat of a nuclear Iran. Though Western analysts are unsure about the extent of Iran’s alleged weapons program, the chance that Tehran could go nuclear in the next few years surely has Saudi Arabia worried. “There are both political and economic drivers for nuclear power in Saudi Arabia,” says Mark Hibbs, senior associate of the nuclear-policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The country’s appetite for electricity is growing fast. It has to be concerned that if it doesn’t diversify its economic base away from fossil-fuel exports, it will be taking risks.” But the country also wants to “challenge Iran’s nuclear leadership in the region. That doesn’t have to mean Saudi Arabia will try to develop nuclear weapons. But a nuclear-armed Iran would be a direct threat to Saudi Arabia,” says Hibbs, who calls the Saudi nuclear-energy program a “long-term hedge against that outcome.”

Western officials also fear that Saudi Arabia could join a nuclear defense pact with Pakistan (both Sunni majority countries) in order to protect against intimidation from Shiite-majority Iran.