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After the IAEA Resolution: Iran's Road to Nuclear Weapons Remains Open

(Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies-Tel Aviv University) Ephraim Asculai - On February 4, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors finally adopted an action resolution on the issue of Iran's nuclear development. The resolution included a reference to the existence in Iran of a design of uranium metal "hemispheres." Two of these, if made of highly enriched uranium, comprise the core of a nuclear bomb. Thus, the IAEA Secretariat has finally had to admit that there are indications that Iran's nuclear program includes military aspects. Iran has already denounced the resolution and declared that it will immediately resume full enrichment activities. It has also announced that it will end the IAEA verification activities. Given the difficult birth pangs of the IAEA resolution and in light of Iran's growing oil revenues, there is no reason to expect that the Security Council will take any prompt and truly effective action against Iran's nuclear program. The only alternative to prevent Iran's eventual emergence as a nuclear weapons state will therefore be determined action by a coalition of like-minded states. In other words, the IAEA's record of procrastination has not only weakened the nuclear non-proliferation regime as a whole; it will also eventually exact a high price from the world by forcing it to resort to more aggressive actions in order to prevent Iran from achieving the military nuclear capability it so ardently desires.
2011-02-10 00:00:00
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