Volume 53, Number 7 · April 27, 2006
Iran and the Bomb
By Christopher de Bellaigue
During the past few months, many nations have reached a consensus on the threat that Iran's nuclear program poses to international security. A similar consensus eluded the same nations in the debate over invading Saddam Hussein's Iraq three years ago. On March 8, the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna referred Iran's case to the Security Council. In public or private, but increasingly in public, senior officials from a wide range of countries—including the US, the EU states that vociferously opposed the invasion of Iraq, as well as India and Japan—speak of Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons with a conviction that suggests they regard it as an incontestable fact. Citing a series of deplorably anti-Israel statements by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, officials from some of the same countries express the fear that once Iran has the bombs it is assumed to be seeking, it will threaten Israel with a new and reckless vigor.
Feature, 3414 words
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