Israel's nuclear arsenal is the largest strategic threat to the Middle East and appears set to trigger a regional arms race, said Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Friday.

"The existing Israeli nuclear capability is the most dangerous strategic threat to Gulf security in the short and medium term," Prince Muqrin told the International Institute of Strategic Studies' conference.

Muqrin said the threat posed by the Israeli nuclear arsenal was driving "some countries in the region to join an arms race."

	Advertisement

The arms race could push moderate Middle Eastern states to enter into alliances with existing nuclear powers or start "covert or overt" nuclear arms developments of their own, "aiming at creating a military balance in the region."

He did not name countries, but appeared to be referring to Iran, which has been accused by Western powers of seeking to develop a nuclear bomb. Iran, which had a delegation at the conference, denies the charge, insisting its nuclear program is strictly for the generation of electricity.

"The spread of weapons of mass destruction will complicate security in this region," Muqrin said.

"My position is against any nuclear or weapons of mass destruction in the whole region, including Israel," he added.

Israel neither denies nor confirms that it has the nuclear bomb, but is widely believed to have a stockpile of nuclear weapons.

The designated U.S. defense secretary, Robert Gates, told his Congressional nomination hearing this week that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons partly because of the nuclear powers around it, and he pointed to Israel.

"I think that they would see it in the first instance as a deterrent," Gates said of the Iranians. "They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf."