Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/spera/www.worldsavvy.org/monitor/components/com_acctexp/acctexp.class.php on line 245
Historical Background

Iran

Issue 8, March 2009


Warning: Parameter 1 to modMainMenuHelper::buildXML() expected to be a reference, value given in /home/spera/www.worldsavvy.org/monitor/libraries/joomla/cache/handler/callback.php on line 99

Warning: Parameter 1 to modMainMenuHelper::buildXML() expected to be a reference, value given in /home/spera/www.worldsavvy.org/monitor/libraries/joomla/cache/handler/callback.php on line 99

Download This Issue


Iran Cover
(registration required)
Home Iran on the World Stage: Iran's Nuclear Program
Historical Background Print

Iran’s nuclear energy program was begun under the Shah, with technology purchased from the US.  In 1968, along with 185 other countries, Iran signed the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which established guidelines for the use of nuclear materials.  In simple terms, the NPT draws a red line between civilian (peaceful) and military (weapons) applications of atomic technology. 

  • Any signatory to the NPT (excluding those that already possessed nuclear weapons at the time – the US, Britain, France, Russia, and China) that crosses this line and begins to develop weapons capabilities is considered to be in violation of the treaty. 
  • The International Atomic Energy Agency or IAEA was established to monitor compliance. 
  • Over the history of the treaty, three non-signatories have developed weapons-grade nuclear capacity: India, Pakistan, and Israel.  Numerous other countries have been persuaded to abandon nuclear weapons programs.  North Korea is the only country to have withdrawn from the treaty.

Iran’s nuclear energy program continued after the Revolution of 1979, accelerating during the tenure of President Khatami in the 1990s.  The Islamic Republic was forthright in its pursuit of peaceful applications of the technology, citing the need for nuclear energy for its growing population so that it could minimize domestic consumption of its export cash cow: oil.  Iran accepted international monitoring as laid out in the NPT and was provided with nuclear materials through China and Russia to deter it from seeking to master the fuel cycle process.  (Once a nation can manufacture its own nuclear fuels, through the enrichment of uranium or the production of plutonium, it can develop weapons capabilities.)

Uranium enrichment

 

Next:  Iran on the World Stage - Iran's Nuclear Program:  The Game Begins