Kuwaiti Professor Abdallah Nafisi: Gulf States Need Military Nuclear Option; Bin Laden Kidnapped, Not Killed

Following are excerpts from an interview with Kuwaiti professor Abdallah Nafisi, which aired on Rotana Khalijiya TV on January 3, 2014:

Interviewer: Israel is a nuclear military power, and Iran is working towards becoming one. Is it necessary for the Gulf states to obtain nuclear weapons? I am talking about nuclear weapons, not nuclear energy.

Abdallah Nafisi: I think that it is in our interest to start thinking about this issue, and to start hinting at a nuclear option. We do not have to declare this publicly, but we have to establish special relations with Pakistan. Pakistan is a Sunni Muslim country, with experience in the nuclear field, and it even frightens India with its nuclear option.

Interviewer: According to intelligence reports, published by the British Times newspaper, Saudi Arabia intends to resort to the Pakistani nuclear weapons, if Iran develops nuclear weapons.

Abdallah Nafisi: It is very important for Saudi Arabia to continue on this path. It is important for the media in the GCC states to talk about this. It is very important that Iran – as well as its satellites among the GCC states – should know that the nuclear option is possible.

[...]

[In 1992, I was part of a delegation] that met with Rafsanjani, then the president of Iran, as well as with Nateq-Nouri, the parliamentary speaker at the time, who arranged a welcome banquet for us. Members of the Iranian parliament attended, including Rouhani.

Interviewer: The current president...

Abdallah Nafisi: Yes. Back then, he chaired the parliamentary committee for foreign policy. I was the rapporteur for the Kuwaiti parliamentary foreign affairs committee. I don't know if it was coincidental, but I was seated next to him. Perhaps it was planned this way so we could talk about foreign affairs. He told me explicitly, and I told my colleagues...

Interviewer: What did he tell you?

Abdallah Nafisi: He said that the entire Gulf coast, from Kuwait to the Sultanate of Oman, used to belong to Persia and would be restored to it.

Interviewer: He said that it would be restored to Iran?

Abdallah Nafisi: Yes. As for Bahrain, he said it should be restored to them right away.

[...]

There is no longer a central unified entity called "Al-Qaeda." I doubt that Sheik Osama Bin Laden was killed. I think that he was kidnapped.

Interviewer: You doubt that he was killed?

Abdallah Nafisi: That's right.

Interviewer: Why do you think that he was kidnapped?

Abdallah Nafisi: I believe that he was kidnapped and they are holding him.

Interviewer: You are saying that Bin Laden is alive?

Abdallah Nafisi: He was kidnapped. It's inconceivable that a country the size of the U.S. would hunt for one person for 11 years, and when it finds him in a small room... rat-tat-tat... would kill him. That would be amateurish. It is not professional to hunt a person for 20 years, and when he is finally found – to kill him, instead of arresting him. What's the point of the pursuit, which cost billions of dollars? No, I believe that he was kidnapped, and then they pretended to throw him into the sea. I believe that Sheik Osama is in their hands and that they are [interrogating] him.

[...]