By Thomas Graham
Ambassadors Perspective
March 15, 2012
Iran has been pursuing a nuclear program for nearly four decades. It began when the Shah was in power, was initially not continued by the Islamic Republic but by the late 1980’s was resumed again in earnest. Iran has been a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) since 1970. It was publically revealed in 2002 that for many years Iran, contrary to its NPT Safeguards Agreement, had been clandestinely importing centrifuge enrichment technology purchased from the Pakistani rogue nuclear proliferator A.Q. Khan and was secretly constructing a large uranium enrichment facility at Natanz along with a plutonium-producing heavy water reactor at Arak. Natanz has been in active production now for a half a dozen years and has produced sufficient nuclear power reactor fuel which if over time upgraded to weapons level could fuel perhaps several crude weapons.
Jonathan Granoff is the President of the Global Security Institute, a representative to United Nations of the World Summits of Nobel Peace Laureates, a former Adjunct Professor of International Law at Widener University School of Law, and Senior Advisor to the Committee on National Security American Bar Association International Law Section.
