Iran's nuclear program has a long history of advances, setbacks and diplomatic pauses * Stimson Center

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

65% : Iran chose the simple P-1 or IR-1 model, as it was called in Iran, so that it would be within the technological capacity of the country to manufacture indigenously.
55% : That was the thinking..."Iran resumed nuclear work in 1981 when the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) sponsored a conference on nuclear power plant construction.
55% : Iran also began small-scale uranium conversion activities at the Esfahan Nuclear Technology Center (ENTC), a French-designed center that was completed with Chinese assistance in 1984.
55% : Iran continued its hedging, however, on uranium enrichment.
53% : Iran now possesses sufficient fissile material for four or five nuclear bombs and, according to some experts, could weaponize within a few months if it so chose.
53% : The George W. Bush administration demanded that Iran halt enrichment while President Barack Obama accepted a strictly monitored and limited program on Iranian soil.
52% : If and when Iran develops nuclear weapons, they will have been a long time coming.
52% : Iran received a small research reactor from the U.S. under the so-called Atoms for Peace program.
49% : Iran and Russia signed an agreement in January 1995 under which Russia pledged to complete the Bushehr nuclear reactor that had been started by Germany in the 1970s.
48% : Iran entered the 21 century having mastered the key technology needed to produce nuclear weapons.
47% : In 1982, Iran imported uranium concentrate from South Africa.
47% : What ensued has been a cat-and-mouse game of nuclear diplomacy between Iran and the U.S., with Tehran attempting to expand its enrichment capabilities and Washington imposing an array of economic sanctions.
47% : This U.S. concession eventually led to the signing of the JCPOA in 2015, which limited Iran for 15 years to a small stockpile of 300 kilograms of uranium enriched to no more than 3.67 percent of the isotope U-235.
45% : After waiting a year to see if other JCPOA parties would continue to trade with it despite U.S. sanctions, Iran resumed enriching uranium to higher and higher levels.
44% : The then Shah of Iran lacked a strategic nuclear vision at the time but was fascinated with Western notions of modernity -- which nuclear programs embodied -- and wanted to show off.
44% : The issue of plutonium reprocessing was a particular sticking point given its potential to create weapons fuel and the U.S. refused to provide that technology to Iran.
44% : After Israel attacked the Natanz enrichment facility in April 2021, Iran upped the ante by beginning to enrich at 60 percent.
41% : The U.S. however, was uneasy about the Shah's nuclear intentions with one CIA analyst predicting that if "Iran continues with its nuclear program and if the Shah remained alive, and other countries in the region have proliferated nuclear weapons, Iran would also develop nuclear weapons by mid-1980s."
41% : In January 1990, Iran signed a deal with China, although it excluded enrichment.
40% : Recent reports regarding mutual reciprocal actions by Iran and the U.S. will not resolve the standoff, but can avert further escalation which could lead to a regional conflagration.
36% : Recent reports that Iran and the U.S. have reached an "understanding" about mutual de-escalatory steps including over Iran's nuclear program suggest that both sides want to avert a major crisis at this time.
34% : The Islamic Republic that succeeded the Pahlavi dynasty initially distanced itself from what it called a treasonous and expensive program that made Iran beholden to Western imperialists.
33% : Even when the U.S. and Iran were security partners, the two disagreed about whether Iran had the "right" to possess advanced nuclear technology under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Iran joined as a non-nuclear weapons state.
32% : Iran is burdened by sanctions and looking to shore up its regime's tattered legitimacy after nationwide protests against forced veiling.
32% : The Shah's logic during this period was that given Iran's conventional superiority, Iran did not need a nuclear arsenal but "if 20 or 30 ridiculous little countries are going to develop nuclear weapons," then Iran should have them too.
25% : The Trump administration's unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and Israeli attacks on Iranian personnel and infrastructure have led Iran to retaliate by accelerating its nuclear program to the point where it could swiftly produce weapons.
22% : The U.S. and Iran are discussing a "pause" that would keep Iran short of weaponizing, release U.S. hostages and reduce regional tensions.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.