2013 Nuclear Sanctions Crisis

The Nuclear Sanctions Crisis began in late December after Queensland accused the Riyadh Islamic Federation of the production and testing of nuclear weapons. The situation quickly gained International attention with Cattala and Atlantsia immediately supporting Queensland without any counter evidence from the Federation.

Accusation
On December 28th, 2012, Queensland reported major Seismic activity, and an explosion in central RIF, evidence provided by Queensland indicated the explosion was in fact, a nuclear test. The accusations sparked outrage throughout the Alliance.

Reaction
The world's reaction was mixed. Hiigara, Riyadh's only major ally immediately called the accusations a scam to collapse the RIF's government, and refused to support the sanctions even if they were passed. Costa Palma, Riyadh's much smaller ally announced its disbelief of Riyadh's possession of WMD, although it showed no indication of supporting its ally in the event of an armed conflict. Nations supporting the sanctions slammed Hiigara for standing by Riyadh despite overwhelming evidence from Queensland. Shihaisha, one of Riyadh's trading partners did believe it was making nuclear weapons but did not support sanctions against the nation. For almost 2 weeks Hiigara argued with supporting nations over why or why not the sanctions should be passed with no input from the RIF.

After Queensland presented its conclusive evidence of a nuclear test, Cattala's representative to the Security Council denounced Riyadh, who had been building a friendly relationship with Cattala, and supported sanctions against the government of Riyadh, but not the population. Cattala did not support the blockade of Riyadh.

Escalation
On January 8th, 2013 The Illium Empire threatened a blockade of the RIF if it failed to provide efficent evidence of the nuclear test being faked. Riyadh in turn denied information to Illium as a rightful response to its hostilities toward the federation. Then Empire went ahead with its blockade and its navy was deployed to the Persian Gulf a few hours later. Riyadh warned that Illium ships entering Riyadi Territory would result in major consequences for the Illium Government. The threat was ignored and the blockade began the next day. Atlantsia also sent an aircraft carrier and two destroyers to assist with the blockade. From January 9th to January 11th several Riyadi ships were stopped, seized, or sent back to port. Sheikh Nashid, furious, issued the official declaration of war between Riyadh, and Illium.

Investigation and Results
On the 4th of February, the Federation agreed to let a science team, consisting mainly of Illium Royal Navy science officers, two Atlantsian scientists and four RIF scientists, investigate the cause of the explosion. The investigation took three days. On the 6th, the following statement was released by Captain Jason Everett, commander of the science team. ''"After intense investigations, we have come to the conclusion that this was NOT a nuclear detonation. There are no radioactive particles in the air or on the ground that are indicative of a nuclear detonation. Futhermore, meteoroid fragments were found in the immediate vicinity, with multiple small impact craters. Continued investigation to find an exact cause is warranted, however we believe that this was a large meteor airburst explosion, similar to the Tunguska Event in central Siberia back in 1908. Upon finding this out, we strongly believe that the current sanctions on the Riyadh Islamic Federation be lifted. This was a naturally occurring event and in no way related to the RIF or its government. There is no further need for the Alliance to sanction the RIF. Additionally, we believe that the RIF's delay before answering and allowing a team in is due to the fact they had no idea what happened either. We will continue the investigation to confirm our findings, and bring in another science team specializing in Earth impacts."''

There were mixed feelings from the international community and the Alliance in general. Many nations felt the results were inconclusive and questioned the validity of the findings, particularly Kingston and Boyce. The following statement was released by Commander Laura Everett, Lead astrophysicist of the Illium Royal Navy, directed at Councilor Mitchell Bellings of Kingston and Boyce.

''"Councilor Bellings, we are still investigating this site. The suspected meteor would have been travelling at nearly 120,000km/hr. It would be traveling too fast for the satellite to capture in it's framerate prior to the explosion. An impact with earth's atmosphere at that speed would cause an explosion similar to a nuclear detonation. The suspect meteor that caused this was only about 50-75 meters in diameter, too small for current asteroid/meteor detection techniques to find it in time. Along with it's size, the suspect meteor had almost zero ice/trapped gas content, which mean we would have never seen it visually coming either, as it wouldn't have throw off any kind of tail. We definitely understand your skepticism, however. When I was assigned the task of investigating this incident, I had serious doubts about the validity of my husband's -I'm sorry, that was unprofessional. I had serious doubt about the validity of Captain Everett's claim that it was a meteor impact. While we have not completed compiling quite enough data to show the Council, I am positive when I say that this was a meteor-airburst event. As for the Riyadh response, we can only speculate why they would delay, councilor. I cannot give you verifiable information as to why they delayed, and it is not my job or place to do so. However, if you were to ask my opinion, I would believe, based on the Riyadhi Science team that accompanied Captain Everett's reactions, that they were under the impression that someone had launched a nuclear assault on their soil. They had absolutely no idea what was going on. QAUSMIN's data supported that theory, however, accompanied with our data, it will show a completely different one, once all the data is gathered and compiled. We formally ask for your patience, Councilor Bellings. This investigation is going to take some time. We will forward your request for a Riyadh response up the chain through the lead Riyadhi scientists on-site here. Thank you for your time, sir." ''

Conclusion
A conclusion has not yet been released at the time of this writing. The Illium Royal Navy science team is still investigating the incident, although the current theory is an event similar to the Tunguska Event, on a smaller scale.