Iran 101

Basics of Iran’s Nuclear Program

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

•Current Supreme

Leader of Iran and a

Shia Cleric

Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• President of Iran from 2005-2013

• The nuclear weapons issue started during his term

• “The Holocaust never happened.”

• “Israel should be wiped of the face of the map”.

Current President Hassan Rouhani

• 2013-Present

• Opposite party of Ahmadinejad

• Wanted to restore the economy

and improve bad relations with

Western nations

• More moderate and brought a

“resurgence of hope” for change

President Hassan Rouhani Continued

• Helped initiate the first high-level talks with the U.S. in decades

• There's some progress in negotiations on Iran's controversial

nuclear program

• His government has opened up the country to some Western

reporters

• But…..

Nuclear Powers of the World

• Discuss

• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty-1970

• “Prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology”

• “Promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy”

• “Further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general

and complete disarmament”

• United States-1945

• Russia-1949

• United Kingdom-1952

• France-1960

• China-1964

• India-1974

• Pakistan-1998

• North Korea-2006

• Israel-??

• Iran-Developing?

Nuclear Power Treaties/Organizations

• Nuclear Test Ban Treaty-1963

• Underground nuclear testing

• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty-1968

• Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty-1996

• Signed by President Bill Clinton

• Not ratified by the Senate

• Why? Senate reasoning:

• “A ban on testing would damage the safety and reliability of America’s existing

nuclear arsenal, and it would be impossible to guarantee treaty compliance by all

countries.”

• International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA)

• Missile Defense System

Iran’s Nuclear Program

• Launched in the 1950’s with the help of the US(of course!)

• Our help ended in 1979 with the Iranian Revolution that toppled

the pro-West government

• Ayatollah Khomeini ended Iran’s nuclear program after the

revolution as he saw nuclear weapons as “sinful”.

• Iran has signed numerous anti-weapons of mass destruction

treaties over the years

• Starting in 2003, the US Intelligence Agencies started

believing that Iran was working towards nuclear weapons

• The IAEA confirmed these suspicions

• Iran consistently denied that they were developing nuclear

weapons

• Iran said they were using nuclear technology for energy only

• The US and many countries do not believe them

Present-March 2015

• President Obama’s Potential Iran Nuclear Deal

• Republican’s Concerned