If Iran gets nuclear bomb, Saudi Arabia will follow suit - Crown Prince

Likening Iran’s leader to Hitler, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince warns in a US television interview that if Tehran gets a nuclear weapon, his country will follow suit. 

Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says in an excerpt of the interview that aired on “CBS This Morning.

The 32-year-old Prince Mohammed said he has referred to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as "the new Hitler" because "he wants to expand."

He wants to create his own project in the Middle East, very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time, Prince Mohammed said.

Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realize how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don't want to see the same events happening in the Middle East.

The interview is scheduled to run on CBS's "60 Minutes" show on Sunday, two days before the crown prince's scheduled White House meeting with US President Donald Trump.

His comments come amid concerns over nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and just days after the kingdom put an atomic energy program on a fast track.

Although intended to reduce Saudi Arabia's dependence on oil, analysts warn the capacity to produce atomic energy could open a pathway to nuclear development for military purposes.