On 1 August, at a business forum in Jakarta, President Prabowo Subianto told a room of executives that Iran already has nuclear weapons, and that a chain reaction was now underway across the region. His exact words, as reported, were: “It is said that Iran already has nuclear weapons. Now Saudi Arabia wants one too. If Saudi Arabia wants nuclear weapons, it’s possible the UAE will also want them, Qatar will also want them, Egypt will also want them.” He did not say who told him Iran had the bomb, and offered no evidence for the domino effect he predicted across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Egypt. He simply stated all of it as common knowledge, in front of business leaders and cameras. The claim about Iran is false, and the whole chain built on it was unscripted and unchecked — a head of state speculating about the world’s most dangerous weapons spreading across a region without checking his starting premise first.
The facts have not moved. Iran belongs to a treaty that bans countries from building nuclear weapons and allows only peaceful uses, like power generation and medical research.
Inspectors from the world’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, have checked Iran’s facilities many times under that treaty and always found the same thing: a civilian programme, not a weapons one.
Even during Iran’s twelve-day war with the US and Israel earlier this year, when Tehran had the least reason to hold back, the IAEA’s head said again there was no sign of a weapon being built....
On 1 August, at a business forum in Jakarta, President Prabowo Subianto told a room of executives that Iran already has nuclear weapons, and that a chain reaction was now underway across the regio...