Historical-Political Reasons for the Formation of Iran's Nuclear Program

Abstract

As a result of the analysis of the historical and political reasons for the creation of Iran's nuclear program, it can be said that the Islamic Republic of Iran, after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, took a completely different path regarding its nuclear program. Iran's goal is to play a special role in both regional and global politics by developing a nuclear program and creating nuclear weapons. If, during the Shah's time, nuclear ambitions were determined only by the enrichment of energy resources, after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, especially after the Iran-Iraq War, the new government set the goal of creating nuclear weapons. Even though the nuclear-weapon states took several countermeasures to limit Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons and several financial, economic, and political sanctions were imposed on it by the West and the USA, Iran continues to strive for the goal of creating and developing nuclear weapons potential. In 2015, Iran and the P5+1 (US, UK, France, China, Russia + Germany) signed an agreement on the non-proliferation and control of nuclear weapons, which was also recognized by a UN resolution in the same year, but the US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 during the Trump administration. Iran then refused to fulfill the terms of the agreement and, of course, blamed the US for this. The tightening of sanctions against Iran also followed the US withdrawal from the agreement. Today, the UN and other states party to the agreement continue to call on Iran and the US to return to the terms of the agreement, although no tangible steps have been taken in this direction so far. Iran's aspiration to create nuclear weapons remains a security issue, both regionally and globally.