June 25, 2004

| Fahrenheit (Not 9/11) >>

I’m not sure I have anything intelligent to add to this op-ed on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, save that I found it fascinating. It’s by a former Iranian former minister:

Anyone with any knowledge of Iranian politics would know that the present regime in Tehran is strategically committed to developing a nuclear “surge capacity” if not a full arsenal of nuclear weapons. The real question, therefore, is whether the region, and the rest of the world, feel comfortable with the idea of a revolutionary regime, claiming a messianic mission on behalf of Islam, arming itself with nuclear weapons.

A peaceful Iran with no ambitions to export an ideology or seek regional hegemony would be no more threatening than Britain, which also has a nuclear arsenal. The real debate on Iran, therefore, can only be about regime change. And this is precisely the issue that the Europeans are loath to acknowledge as a legitimate topic of discussion.

The author, Ardeshir Zahedi, explains quite a bit about Iran’s nuclear past.

Now, read this —

… Iran’s first nuclear reactor was installed in Tehran in 1955 and the first batch of Iranians sent to Europe and the U.S. to study nuclear physics and related subjects were back home by the early 1960s. By the mid-1970s, Iran had a well-educated and motivated corps of nuclear scientists who, backed by substantial financial resources from the government, undertook research into all aspects of the new technology, including its military applications.

— and tell me that planning on that scale doesn’t blow your mind. “Okay, guys, we need to learn nuclear physics. Sooo we’re going to send a generation of scientists overseas and then have them return. It should only take about ten years.”