NEW YORK (JTA) — The head of a leading Arab research center said he supported a military strike against Iran.
Abudlaziz Sager, chairman of the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, said he believes the West or Israel should attack Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, The New York Times reported Thursday.
“I favor getting the job done now instead of living the rest of my life with a nuclear hegemony in the region that Iran would like to impose," Sager told the newspaper in reference to the possibility of using military force against Iran.
Sager’s comments are considered to be unusually outspoken coming from a former Saudi diplomat and the head of a prominent organization based in an Arab country.
The New York Times speculated that the announcement last week by President Obama that Iran is building an additional nuclear reactor in Qum may have caused Arab leaders to become more vocal in their criticism of the Islamic Republic.
In his interview with the Times, Sager said he believed that an attack on Iran would have to involve the United States for it to be successful.
“Israel can start the attack but they can’t sustain it," Sager said. "The United States can start it and sustain it.”
He added that “The region can live with a limited retaliation from Iran better than living with a permanent nuclear deterrent.”
