Iran

IRAN, A THREAT FOR THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY?

Since 1950, when Iran started its intentions of creating a nuclear program, a speculation started to spread around the international community. A certain degree of uncertainty about Iran´s real purposes; even though back then it sounded more like an unrealistic dream than a reality.
By 1970, Iran started working towards huge ambitions on theirnuclear program. According to a report in this year, Iran was already looking for technology in the United States and made some experiments related to reprocessing (process of separating plutonium from spent fuel, that allows the creation of nuclear weapons), directed by a secret group, lead by Shah (Iran´s royal leader of that moment).
These ambitions included the construction of 20 powerreactors with the capability of generating 20.000 megawatts of energy for domestic consumption by the 1990´s, for instance, by this moment, they had built the first light-water reactor near the city of Bushehr; always claiming these efforts to be strictly for peaceful purposes. Only for generating electricity and being able to export the other fossil fuels such as oil and gas that are abundant in theterritory; but the words never were enough for the United States, who were concerned about the lack of proof that Iran was not working towards creating nuclear weapons, as they have researched in the 1970´s.
With the Islamic revolution of 1979 between Mohammad Reza Shah and Ayatollah Khomeini (who changed the Iran´s monarchy for an Islamic Republic and then became the supreme leader), the nuclearprogram was cancelled due to the strong civil war the country confronted at that time.
The program was reinstalled in 1982 and got so strong that by 1985, a report by the National Intelligence Council said that Iran was a potential threat. The possibility of creating facilities to produce fissile material (the material used in nuclear weapons), meant Iran´s fast developing in this matter and aproof that the dream of a past time was becoming true and even though this would take at least 10 years to be completely accomplished, it also meant a threat for the international security, peace and coexistence. The international community was concerned, because according to the reports, Iran was working on clandestine programs for nuclear weaponry.
Iran kept arguing about their purposes, tryingto calm down the tension, it is valid that enrichment of uranium can be used for peaceful purposes (for nuclear fuel), but it is also obvious that it can be used for military purposes (nuclear weapons), so taking this in account and many inspections that revealed suspicious moves from Iran, like enriching uranium, working not only with light-water reactor, but also with heavy-water reactors, andoperating centrifuges and conducts, is what generates fear and pushes the most powerful countries to feel the need to put some pressure for them to stop and the UN Security Council imposed sanctions to Iran to force them to cooperate.
Despite the pressure and speculations, Iran kept going with the program and started to work step by step on its objectives successfully in terms of improvement.
In2003, they gave a very important step, two gas-centrifuge-based uranium-enrichment plants placed in Natanz, one of them already built with 1.000 centrifuges and a second one under construction planned to have 50.000 centrifuges. In this case Iran argues that the goal is to produce low-enriched uranium (LEU), nothing to worry, but there were found High-enriched uranium (HEU) near the city thatdemonstrates there is not such innocence. Then comes the construction of a heavy-water reactor in another city, Arak, which generates more concern because of the spending of nuclear fuel from nuclear reactors, which means they are dealing with plutonium, a very important type of fissile material necessary in the creation of nuclear weapons. It is important to add that the National Council of...