Classics: Iran + Nuclear =?
It is an incredibly controversial topic whether or not Iran
should have nuclear weapons. According to an Iranian newspaper, Iran News
Daily, Iran says its nuclear program is solely aimed at generating electricity
to meet booming demand[1].
Iran claims that its program is for peaceful purposes like generating energy. However,
other countries, especially the US thinks that if Iran makes nuclear bombs,
then Israel will be in danger. According to the New York Times, the Israeli Prime
Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Israel can’t just watch Iran and wait
for what happens. He said that Iran is now in the “zone of immunity” meaning
that there is really no evidence that Iran is building nuclear bombs[2].
The UN uses economic sanctions to try and bring Iran down to its knees but it’s
fruitless so far. “Cyber warfare” (use of viruses and other cyber to harm
someone) has also been used to put pressure on Iran and to discourage it from
proceeding to make a nuclear bomb. Israel does have nuclear weapons and it’s
backed up by what’s arguably the world’s greatest power, the United States. [3]
Iran and Israel would get into a nuclear war if Iran is successful in making
the bombs and if it attacks Israel. “You would have a very unstable deterrent
environment between Israel and Iran, simply because these are two states that
tend to view each other in existential terms,” said Ray Takeyh, an
Iranian-American Middle East scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations[4].
Iran, on the other hand, claimed that the US’s actions show
hypocrisy because they had a nuclear test recently and that was a clear
violation of the rule of “nuclear disarmament that threatens world peace and
stability[5].”
Also, it said that according to the Iranian Supreme Leader, the construction,
stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are all haram (illegal in Islam). This
claim about nuclear being haram would not be the opinion of Sunni Muslims.
The United States showed its strictness when it blacklisted a
group of companies and individuals for cooperating with Iran in the production
and enrichment of Uranium[6].
“So long as Iran continues to pursue a nuclear program in defiance of multiple
U.N. Security Council resolutions, the U.S. will target those involved in
Iran’s illicit enrichment activities,” the Treasury Department said in a
statement[7].
It would do whatever it takes to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons and
Obama showed frustration when he said that the the time for a negotiated
settlement was running out[8].
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is the agency responsible
for the investigations on whether or not Iran develops nuclear weapons, wanted
to investigate at Fordo, the place where Iran runs its nuclear program.
However, Iran delays the investigations saying that a framework regulating the
agency’s probe must be agreed on first[9].
Iran says that it needs nuclear power for peaceful purposes
and other countries led by the United States think that it’s not and that their
first target might be Israel. All we can do is wait and see what happens next.
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