Iran's Nuclear Program example essay topic

To: President of the United States of America; George W. Bush From: Senior Political Advisor; Fade F. Mir hom Re: Potential Threat Posed by Iran and Responses to Such a Threat Date: May 17th, 2005 Mr. President Concerning the task that was assigned by your honor to me on May 6th 2005, regarding the preparation of a policy memorandum focusing on the Iranian nuclear program achievements; I am gladly presenting my advisement's and spotting the Iranian policy toward its nuclear programs, comparing our and to the world's policies. The final battle for the revolution was in late 1978, when The Shah of Iran took the decision of stepping down. By that time, the Shah understood that he could not use the militarily force to control the irritated Islamic civilian rebellion in the country (1). After a year of public demonstrations against him, the Shah of Iran left Tehran on January 16, 1979, for an "extended vacation" (2). On February 1, 1979 Khomeini; the opposition leader, became the head of the State. (2) The Iranian Revolution was the biggest defeat for U.S. imperialism in the years after the Vietnam War.

The revolution brought down one of the U.S.'s strongest ally; the Shah of Iran. Also it permanently changed the political topography in the Middle East. (3) Before the Revolution, the United States had used Iran and its Shah among with Saudi Arabia, as "surrogate states" (4) to ensure the safe flow of oil. The Shah as someone who had been installed in power by a CIA-planned coup d'etat in 1953- and his government were American's allies protecting U.S. interests in the region, with good relation with Israel in the time of the Arab-Israeli clashes and conflicts (5). The revolution that caused the downfall of the Shah, and replaced him with a stubborn, fundamentalist-Islamic government, not only betrayed these policies, but also forced the United States into restraining a newly aggressive Jihad-based Iranian government (6).

In the fall of 1979, the government subsidized a takeover of the U.S. embassy. During the resulting "hostage crisis", Khomeini was able to label all dissent against his government as the work of U.S. imperialism in the region. The revolution threw out one of imperialism's most trusted allies, and gendarme, in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. The counter-revolution that rode on the back of the revolution, even if its success was oiled by the scheming of Western governments, upset the carefully laid imperialist jigsaw in the region.

The West, and in particular the USA lost a close ally. The Ayatollah also swigged the radical of his economy to a lefty, pro-soviet model (7). The Jihad y-revolutionary administration that took the Sharia that its only legislative source, shifted its relation toward its neighbors in the Middle East. After being an Israeli companion for long time under the rule of the Shah, Tehran became a great financial and military supported to Palestine and the Palestinians Mujahedeens. Iran became a threat to Israel and other states in the region.

Iraq with its Sonny government became another challenger to the Iranian Shirts government that was trying to export its revolutionary ideology to the public of its neighbor state. The Islamic revolution that took over the government, not only reshaped the foreign relations of the government, and controlled all the natural resources of the country, furthermore, it inherited the Iranian nuclear program. The Iranian nuclear program was established in the 60's when the shah was in power. The program was adopted and equipped by the American governments. The Tehran Nuclear Research Center was built in 1967; the US supplied it with small nuclear reactors (8). In 1968, Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In the same year Iran signed a bilateral agreement with the U.S. that stated that the U.S. would help Iran to construct up to 25 nuclear power stations by the year 2000, across the country, as peaceful projects (9). The Ayatollahs' administrations tied to the Soviet and the post Soviet Russia, signed numerous agreement that required a nuclear tread with the Russians. Russia is the biggest provider of the Nuclear Fuel to Iran; on the other hand Iran is the biggest provider of oil to Russia. That concludes strong ties based of different kinds of fuel exchange between the two nations (10).

The Russian collaboration with Iran in emerging its nuclear technology, as well as its assumed aid in developing Iranian missiles, led to one of the unusual complex moments during the Moscow-St. Petersburg summit in May 2002. Russia strongly denied any unlawful activity and guaranteed that its cooperation with Iran was severely within the limits of its international commitments and in fulfilling with international nonproliferation regimes. President Putin mentioned that western companies, not only the Russian ones, had equipped Iran with missile and nuclear technology. As Putin pointed out ironically, "the United States has taken on the obligation of building a nuclear power station identical to the one in Bushehr in North Korea". (11) Under the Khomeini regime, Iran's nuclear program progressively grew on all fronts and stages of the nuclear fuel cycle, with a particular highlighting on developing and intensification homegrown competences. Somewhat as a result of the limitation in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) maintaining system, and somewhat by evaluating Iran's objective, the international community and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have increased their scrutiny of Iran's activities over the last several years.

The most distressing developments were discovered in 2002-03, during which time Iran admitted to having construction plans for two enrichment facilities, a heavy water production plant, a fuel fabrication plant, and undertaken research into conversion and enrichment activities (12). Iran is building nuclear facilities to attain its goal of having an aboriginal fuel cycle potential. Iran's nuclear program functions several facilities all over the country, including the Nuclear Research Center in Tehran, (TNR C), Nuclear Research Center for Agriculture, the Esfahan Nuclear Technology Center (ETC), and Medicine, and the Beneficiation and Hydro metallurgical Research Center (BHR C). In addition to these, there have been new disclosures about Iran's centrifuge enhancement program located in Natanz and heavy water related activity in Arak. Finally, the Bushehr nuclear reactor, when completed, will be Iran's first nuclear power plant when it goes on-line in the very near future. Within the next 10 years, there will likely be at least one possibly more, power reactors built in Iran.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) is the government agency that supervises Iran's nuclear program, and is one of the very few agencies in Iran that reports to the president directly not to any ministry. It was created in 1973 to manage a 23,000 MW nuclear power program in Iran. It is uncertain how many people currently work at AEOI. The international observers of AEOI said that the nuclear institute once had 4,500 workers. After the Islamic Revolution, many primary nuclear scientists left the country. The AEOI supposedly employed "around 200 scientists and 2,000 personnel employed in that nuclear research".

(13) Every so often, Iran shows cooperation with the international society and with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). On October 21st 2003, as part of an agreement with Germany, France, and Great Britain, Iran finally gave up to strong international strain and agreed to sign the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which permitted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) short-notice entrance to its nuclear facilities. Tehran also approved providing an account of all its nuclear-related actions and to dangle its highly contentious uranium enhancement program (14). On February 9, 2003, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami proclaimed the Iranian program for fertilizing uranium, the fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear power plants. The inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have visited Iran on a regular basis to examine the program.

The administration of US, believes that the primary purpose of Iran's program is to develop nuclear weapons (15). Concomitantly, the United States along with some other board members has continued to uphold that Iran is surreptitiously creating an underground nuclear weapons program. And while IAEA inspectors have not yet confirmed this claim, supporters argue that Iran has violated the NPT and that the country's nuclear file should be referred to the United Nations Security Council for its review. Mohamed El-Baradei; the head of the IAEA is worried about pursuing such a hard line against Iran, as he fears that exerting too much pressure may cause Iran to choose to pull out of the NPT in total (16).

On the other hand, Iran continues to emphasize that it is aiming on a nuclear program with only peaceful usage. Russia obviously opposed to United Nations's sanctions against Iran, especially given the absence of evidence to sustain claims about any unlawful activities. Russia has also supported Iran's revelation efforts, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin's November 2003 charge that Iran acted in bad faith by failing to fully conform to IAEA inspections (17). In June 2003, the IAEA inspection found that ecological samples that were taken from the chemical research lab of the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz exposed the presence of highly enriched uranium (HEU). These inspections showed and declared that Iran is violating of the NPT agreements.

The IAEA Director Mohamed El Baradei stated, "Iran has failed to meet its requirements under its Safeguards Agreement" (18) and criticized Iran for not being clear with the construction of its nuclear-related facilities and import of nuclear material. From their side, foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany tenable Iran's consent to cooperation with the IAEA ahead of the 31 October deadline, to reduce the stressed relations between Iran and the IAEA and to preserve the inviolability of the nonproliferation regime. On 21 October 2003, publicized that it will cooperate with the IAEA with full transparency and revelation. Iran also was asked to sign the Additional Protocol, and suspend all enrichment activities, although for an "interim period". As a step to prove it collaboration, Iran signed the Additional Protocol to the NPT on 18 December 2003 (19) The United States doesn't have that much of actions that can be taken against Iran. To throw the country in a unitarily war against such a nuclear government, isn't a good Idea.

The U.S. officials know that going to war against Iran requires an enormous budget, more ground troops, more equipments, and new training for the U.S. army force. Neither our economic nor our Military force can afford any war especially against a nuclear country like Iran. If we were not trapped into the Iraqi war, may be we could have different options now a day. The US wants that the Iranian issue to be send to the UN Security Council, which could enforce sanctions on Tehran. Great Britain, Germany and France presenting The European Union, have been urgent for a diplomatic solution rather than sanctions. China, as a permanent member of the Security Council, has said it sturdily resist referral to the council (20).

On May 2, 2005 The U.S. representative a UN conference about Iran and its nuclear program, said that Iran was trying to build atomic weapons in secret and recommended that the international community should react by taking away Tehran's right to nuclear energy technology (21). The U.S. went into the conference to increase the stress on Iran, but its speech showed the differences between the United States of on side and Europeans and the Chinese on the other side, over how to handle the Iranian nuclear issues. Daryl G. Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association in Washington said: "The assertion that Iran is making nuclear weapons hasn't been backed up by direct evidence", He also added "And the conference isn't going to endorse the plan Rade maker laid out when Iran and the Europeans are engaged in discussions about the program". On his behalf Mohamed El Baradei told the conference as a reminder that countries such as Iran are more likely to keep their nuclear options open if they feel endangered. "The use of security assurances would also help to reduce security concerns", El Baradei added (22). On the 10th of May 2005 Condoleezza Rice; U.S. Secretary of State, said that all the governments need to deal with Iran as a state supports of terrorism.

Rice also said "we have no intention of using military force in Iran", (23). She also added that the U.S. has "many, many concerns over what the U.S. considers Iranian support for terrorism in the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon", and elsewhere, and "we all as a world need to deal with Iran". She added that America "supports current negotiations between Britain, France, and Germany on behalf of the EU, and Iran", over its nuclear aspirations, designed to "get Iran to live up to its international obligations". The U.S. expects Iran intends to make nuclear bombs, a charge that Iran disagrees with.

Rice was positive that Iran "will not be immune" to "the changes going on in the world". People around the world are asking for freedom, she said, and Iranians "want to be part of the international community". (24) With an unexpected move, Iran has declared it will resume nuclear activities, on may 11th 2005, disproving the ideas that says that under the European pressure, backing away from its threat to instantly end its freeze on uranium conversion. Hasan Rowhani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator said that Tehran would resume some nuclear activities because it could not continue nuclear negotiations with the Europeans. "Continuation of negotiations in their present format is not possible for us", Rowhani told Ian state-run television.

"The basic point that the Islamic Republic of Iran will resume part of its nuclear activities in the near future is definite", Rowhani said (25) The foreign ministers of the European Union's three major powers, France, Britain and Germany sent a toughly worded letter to Hassan Rowhani, warning that resuming potentially arms-related nuclear program "would bring the negotiating process to an end", and added "The consequences could only be negative for Iran", (26) Bill, James A. "The Shah, The Ayatollah, and the U.S". The Economist. June 1987: pages 24-26. Or win, George.

Iran Iraq: Nations at War. New York: Shimmer Books, 1990. Socialist worker online: Twenty-five years after The Iranian Revolution February 27, 2004 | Page 6. The Role of Iran in the New Millennium, by R.K. Ramazani, Volume V, March 2001, Number 1.

Socialist worker online: Twenty-five years after The Iranian Revolution February 27, 2004 | Page 8. Looking back at the road to revolution, The Iranian, by Pay man Arabshahi February 11, 2001. Iran after Khomeini, by Shire en T. Hunter, David D. Newsom. Page 102. Iran's nuclear program, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Middle East Review of International Affaire MERI Journal Volume 8, No. 1 - March 2004 THE RUSSIA-IRAN NUCLEAR CONNECTION AND U.S. POLICY OPTIONS By Victor Miz in.

Ron Hutcheson, "Putin Offers Inspectors in Iran", Philadelphia Inquirer, May 27, 2002. "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran", Report by the Director General, IAEA, 1 June 2004. Andrew Rath mell, "Iran's Nuclear Ambitions", Jane's Intelligence Review, Special Report No. 6: Iran's Weapons of Mass Destruction, June 2002, p. 12. Ch ahram Chub in and Robert Lit wak, "Debating Iran's Nuclear Aspirations", Washington Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 43, p. 111. Muhammad Sashimi; Harvard International Review, Vol. 26, 2005 Louis Charbonneau, "El Baradei wary of taking Iran to Security Council", Reuters, 8 July 2004. "Sanctions against Iran 'unacceptable', Russian minister", Arnaud de Borchgrave, "Iran in bombsights?" Washington Times, 5 July 2004.

"Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran", Report by the Director-General, International Atomic Energy Agency, GOV/2003/40, 19 June 2003. Global Security Newswire, "Iran Signs Additional Protocol", 18 December 2003. U.S. keeps nuclear pressure on Iran, BBC NEWS November 29th, 2004. web U.S. Urges Punishment For Iran Nuclear Work, By Dana Liner Washington Post, May 3, 2005; Page A 18. The State Department website reported (web). HR-NET Hellenic Resource Network, From: Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Al-Jazeera. net, Iran vows to resume nuclear activities, (5/13/2005) Al-Jazeera. net, Iran gets European warning, (5/13/2005).