Saudi Arabia announced Friday that it has donated $10 million to launch a specialized center fighting nuclear terrorism in Austria's capital Vienna, the state-owned Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. The announcement was made during Saudi's participation in the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington where world leaders declared progress Friday in securing nuclear materials worldwide but warned of a persistent and harrowing threat: terrorists getting their hands on a nuclear bomb. The head of the Saudi delegation at the summit, Hashim bin Abdullah Yamani, who is also president of the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, said Riyadh was one of the "first countries" who pushed their full weight to back measures and agreements to combat nuclear terrorism. Yamani said Saudi is also interested in producing clean energy through a peaceful nuclear facility. US President Barack Obama, addressing the summit earlier, said there was no doubt that if ISIS "madmen" obtained nuclear material, they would use it to kill as many people as possible. He urged fellow leaders not to be complacent about the risk of a catastrophe he said would have global ramifications for decades. At this year's summit – Obama's last major push on denuclearization before he leaves office next year - deep concerns about nuclear terrorism have tempered other, more positive signs of the world coming together to confront the broader nuclear threat. Obama spent part of the summit huddling with the leaders of South Korea and Japan about deterring nuclear-tinged provocations from North Korea, in a powerful show of diplomatic unity with two US treaty allies. Similarly, Obama's sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping offered the two strategic rivals a chance to illustrate their mutual concern about the North, a traditional Chinese ally.
