Eight Nations at Risk of Pursuing Nuclear Armament Amid US-Iran Negotiation Breakdown

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Experts in nuclear proliferation from the Stimson Center and Just Security caution that a failure in the ongoing 60-day nuclear discussions between the US and Iran could instigate a series of decisions regarding the development of nuclear weapons in at least eight nations, as faith in US security assurances diminishes. Countries such as South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, Australia, and potentially Taiwan are recognized as actively contemplating or already involved in nuclear latency initiatives — the ability to rapidly construct weapons if a security exigency arises. The decline of NATO's reliability, uncertainties surrounding Trump's Article 5 commitment, and the precedent established by Iran's nuclear confrontations have collectively contributed to what specialists describe as an ideal scenario for nuclear proliferation, threatening to reverse decades of non-proliferation efforts.

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00:00Nuclear proliferation experts are sounding the alarm about a cascade that could fundamentally

00:05change the world as we know it. If the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks collapse in the next 60 days,

00:11at least eight countries may begin accelerating toward their own nuclear weapons capability.

00:17South Korea has been publicly debating developing nuclear weapons for months.

00:21Its public polling shows 70 percent support for a national deterrent.

00:26Japan is rethinking its post-World War II nuclear allergy.

00:30Saudi Arabia has explicitly made a civilian nuclear program a condition of its Abraham

00:35Accords participation. Poland and Ukraine are discussing nuclear latency.

00:40Turkey has raised the subject. The driver is a collapse of confidence in U.S. security guarantees.

00:46Trump's Article 5 ambiguity, his praise for nuclear-armed states.

00:50And now, the Iran Precedent, where nuclear brinkmanship extracted billions in concessions from Washington.

00:57Experts at the Stimson Center call it a perfect storm.

01:01Fifty years of nuclear non-proliferation progress could unravel in the next five years if this

01:07window is not successfully managed.

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