We 'have a right' to enrich uranium, too

Amid fears of an atomic arms race in the Middle East, a senior United Arab Emirates official has told a top US lawmaker that it too might seek the right to enrich uranium that Iran has asserted under the recently signed nuclear deal.

The landmark Iran accord to curb its nuclear weapons in exchange for economic sanctions relief allows Teheran to enrich uranium. In barely noticed testimony last month, Republican Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the UAE's ambassador in Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, had informed him in a telephone call that the country no longer felt bound by its previous nuclear agreement with the United States.

"He told me, 'Your worst enemy has achieved this right to enrich. It's a right to enrich now that your friends are going to want, too, and we won't be the only country'," Royce said, elaborating on his testimony.