Riyadh has signalled in the past that it might seek nuclear warheads from its ally Pakistan if Tehran were to develop them.
Today, Tuesday, a number of MPs are questioning why Britain needs to renew its fleet of Trident submarines equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads.
Options include: fewer warships; reducing the number of F-35 fighters on two new aircraft carriers; cutting the number of warheads and missiles for the Trident programme; and smaller pay rises for the armed forces.
"We are on track to cut nuke warheads to lowest levels since 1950s … but we have more work to do, so I am announcing [that] we can ensure security of US and allies by reducing our stored weapons by up to one third," said Obama.
Proposing reductions of a third in US and Russian nuclear warheads, Obama stated: "So long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe".
This speech, along with his ability not to be George W. Bush, was a key factor in landing Mr Obama the Nobel peace prize a few months later.The following year he returned to Prague to sign an arms agreement with Russia, New START, which capped the number of deployed strategic warheads allowed to each side at 1,550.
Its operators told the visitors that its purpose was to generate nuclear fuel but no one missed the message that its output could just as well be used to make warheads.
North Korea has not yet tested a vehicle that can make a controlled re-entry into the atmosphere and find a target.To travel intercontinental distances, warheads must be miniaturised.
But, as in its conflict with Israel, it relies on the deterrent power of its missiles which may, perhaps, be tipped with chemical warheads.
He has given up merely a handful of missiles, a few empty chemical warheads and (most recently) an undeclared unmanned aircraft.
Miniaturising nuclear warheads is hard, and the North has enough plutonium for just ten or so nuclear devices.
