ISLAMABAD, Sept 15: Muslim countries should have nuclear weapons to deter their enemies, Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said here on Friday, but added that his ideal would be global nuclear disarmament.

Addressing a seminar, Mr Mohamad condemned US foreign policy and Israel, and said Muslims were enjoined by their faith to defend themselves.

“They need to have nuclear weapons too, because only (through) the possession of such would their enemies be deterred from attacking them,” he said in a speech titled ‘Clash of Civilisations or Clash of Interests’.

Sharing the platform with Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan, the 81-year-old former premier received warm applause from the audience.

Answering questions later, Mr Mohamad said: “If you allow Israel to have nuclear weapons why shouldn’t others?”

“While I think we should not be selective in determining which nations should have, and should not have, I think the best thing we could do is to say is that all nations should not have nuclear weapons and in particular this very, very, very belligerent United States.”

He was criticising the US over the Iraq war, saying far fewer Iraqis would have been killed under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship.

“Is there a difference between being killed by democrats and being killed by dictators? If only we could ask those who died.”

Mr Mohamad also spoke of a “Jewish conspiracy in the United States”, revisiting the subject of a speech he made in 2003 in which he said Jews ruled the world by proxy.—Reuters