A prosperous country,faced with powerful enemies,naturally tries to defend itself in the best ways.Now the best defense in the modern world is nuclear weapons.Iran has the money to start and kind of nuclear weapons program.What it does not have,unluckily,is the technical know-how and knowledge to do so readily.
Israel and the West do not want Iran to become a nuclear power.They do not want it to be in control of the oil routes,mainly in the Strait(narrow passage of water joining two larger bodies of water) of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea.
In 2005, the International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) found Iran to be using atomic energy for warlike purposes.In 2006,the UN Security Council asked Iran to suspend its nuclear preparations with sanctions in case of non-compliance.Iran did not comply.In fact,Iran's nuclear program,started in the Shah's time,came to a halt with the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war(1978-1988). Iran renewed it efforts to develop nuclear energy after the war saying that it needed it to produce electricity.But the western powers argued that,with its huge oil and gas reserves and limitless income,it did not need atomic energy for power production.
Iran has finally told the western powers that it is its right to use nuclear energy as it likes though it is not engaged in making an atomic bomb.The fact is that Iran is trying to become powerful by producing and possessing nuclear weapons.Noe Iran is engaged in "uranium enrichment that can be used for both peaceful and military uses". Its use of "centrifuge enrichment technology" makes the detection of secret enrichment very difficult.Already it has prepared and tested long-distance missiles that can carry nuclear warheads.
It is true that,like India and Pakistan,Iran wants to prepare atomic bombs,which appears to be its right.But the fact also stands that once Iran or another underdeveloped country has prepared them,other countries will also do the same,and the danger of world destruction will get closer.The proper solution to this lies in the destruction of all atomic weapons under the UN and a universal agreement not to produce any,which Iran also has stressed.If Israel and the West attack Iran to destroy its nuclear installations,Russia and,possibly,China may intervene, and the war may escalate.Secondly,Iran will block the Persian Gulf, and with it the oil supplies to the West.The Middle East will be a major war theater with unending killing and destruction.The prices of oil will shoot up uncontrollably and commerce and development will be at a standstill.Yet,after the holocaust,Iran may at some time produce an atomic bomb.The solution to the problem,then,lies in negotiations in which Iran has the upper hand.
The wisest course that the West can adopt for a ready solution is to change its policies towards Israel in favor of the Islamic countries.It should help create the Palestinian state as the Arabs desire.Then in a broad-based conference,it can persuade Iran not to use atomic energy for warlike purposes.
