Speaker: Nuclear weapons in Iran could lead to arms race

If Iran attains nuclear weapons, it could lead to a new arms race in the Mideast and the end of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, said Bradley Gordon, an expert on the region at a lecture Thursday night.\n"If Iran gets nuclear weapons, I wouldn't want to bet the farm that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and other countries wouldn't want them, too," he said. \nGordon, who has previously worked for the CIA and as a policy assistant to a U.S. senator, is currently director of policy and government relations for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.\nThe committee is "America's Pro-Israel Lobby," according to a brief description on its Web site.\nGordon recounted efforts over the past several years by the United States, European Union and Russia to halt Iran's nuclear program, all of which have been rebuffed.\nHe also made a point of saying that nuclear weapons in Iran is a much more serious prospect than weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.\n"This ain't Iraq and the CIA," Gordon said. "All of this has been verified by UN inspectors on the ground."\nAnother key difference between Iraq and Iran is that Iran has put many of its nuclear facilities underground, often next to schools and hospitals. Complicating a possible military strike even further is the chance that Iran could cut off a good portion of the world's oil supply, Gordon said.\nIn the second half of the presentation, Gordon discussed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.\nHe said negotiations were going well as late as 2000, but the Palestinians' recent election of Hamas and the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharonsuffered have been major roadblocks.\n"We are in as much of an uncertain period now as we have ever been in the last 20 years," Gordon said. "So my advice is to sit down, buckle your seatbelts and put your trays in the upright position because it's going to be a bumpy ride."\nMost of the audience members were receptive to the lecture.\n"It was good to have someone speak who's been directly there as opposed to the news, which can be so biased," junior Amanda Dudley said.\nHer friend, junior Sarah Kaplan, echoed that sentiment.\n"I was struck by his honesty since he's been in intelligence," Kaplan said. "He didn't seem biased by any political stance"