U.S. Tells Iran: Become a Nuclear Power

U.S. Tells Iran: Become a Nuclear Power

Reese Erlich November 28, 2007
Editor: Erik Leaver




A declassified document from President Gerald Ford's administration, for which Kissinger was Secretary of State, supported Iran's push for nuclear power. The document noted that Tehran should "prepare against the time--about 15 years in the future--when Iranian oil production is expected to decline sharply."1 The United States ultimately planned to sell billions of dollars worth of nuclear reactors, spare parts and nuclear fuel to Iran.
The Shah even periodically hinted that he wanted Iran to build nuclear weapons. In June 1974, the Shah proclaimed that Iran would have nuclear weapons "without a doubt and sooner than one would think."2 Iranian embassy officials in France later denied the Shah made those remarks, and the Shah disowned them. But a few months later the Shah noted that Iran "has no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons but if small states began building them, then Iran might have to reconsider its policy."3

If an Iranian leader made such statements today, the United States and Israel would denounce them as proof of nefarious intent. They might well threaten military action if Iran didn't immediately halt its nuclear buildup. At the time, however, the comments caused no ripples in Washington or Tel Aviv because the Shah was a staunch ally of both....

...Not coincidentally, the United States and Europeans had completely halted their devil's work in Iran. Germany had stopped construction on the Bushehr nuclear reactor. The United States, Germans and French cut off supplies of equipment and nuclear material. All three governments refused to refund any money already paid, despite cancellation of the nuclear contracts.

U.S. NUCLEAR POLICY TOWARD IRAN ( June 1 , 1995)
By Mark D. Skootsky

The date by which Iran will have nuclear weapons is no longer 10 years fromnow. If the Iranians maintain this intensive effort to get everything theyneed, they could have all their components in two years. Then it will bejust a matter of technology and research. If Iran is not Interrupted in thisprogram by some foreign power, it will have the device in more or less fiveyears.

Past Arguments Don't Square With Current Iran Policy

Lacking direct evidence, Bush administration officials argue that Iran's nuclear program must be a cover for bomb-making. Vice President Cheney recently said, "They're already sitting on an awful lot of oil and gas. Nobody can figure why they need nuclear as well to generate energy."
Yet Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and outgoing Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz held key national security posts when the Ford administration made the opposite argument 30 years ago.

Iran oil revenue quickly drying up, analysts say
By Barry Schweid, Associated Press December 26, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Iran is suffering a staggering decline in revenue from its oil exports, and if the trend continues, income could all but disappear by 2015, according to an analysis published yesterday in a journal of the National Academy of Sciences...

...Stern's analysis, which appears in this week's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, supports US and European suspicions that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons in violation of international understandings.
But, Stern said, there could be merit to Iran's assertion that it needs nuclear power for civilian purposes "as badly as it claims."
He said that oil production is declining, and that both gas and oil are being sold domestically at highly subsidized rates. At the same time, Iran is neglecting to reinvest in its oil production....