President Barack Obama has voiced to Israel’s Channel 2 that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon over a year or so. The US President has pledged to prevent the development of an Iran nuclear weapon, voicing that the Iran nuclear crisis should ideally be resolved diplomatically. In the absence of a diplomatic solution, Barack Obama mentioned that all options are on the table and went on to remark that the US has significant capacities as regards a military strike on Iran’s nuclear sites.
Barack Obama has asserted that the American goal is to prevent an Iran nuclear weapon, which could jeopardise Israel’s security or trigger an arms race in the Middle Eastern region. Such a scenario would be immensely perilous and would worsen the already unstable Middle East. Barack Obama’s comments on the Iran nuclear programme have emerged just prior to his journey to Israel, which will commence on March 20.
Discussions over the possibility of an Iran nuclear weapon and the overall nuclear programme of that nation will happen during Barack Obama’s trip to Israel.
Iran has maintained that its nuclear programme and its refining of uranium are only for peaceful energy purposes. Israel has consistently threatened to attack Iran militarily if the Islamic Republic seems to be on the verge of developing a nuclear bomb. The strategy of the Democratic administration so far vis-à-vis the Iran nuclear programme has been economic and diplomatic sanctions.
The relationship between Israel and Iran has been acrimonious and venomous since 1979 when the Iranian Islamists conquered Iran as part of the ‘Islamic Revolution.’ After the Islamists won, the new Islamic Republic of Iran annulled diplomatic/cultural ties with Israel, calling Israel a ‘Zionist entity’ that had been illegally occupying the Palestinian land. Before 1979, Iran had been governed autocratically by a secular Muslim monarchy. Then, the secular Muslim monarchy of Iran had ensured a stable diplomatic and cultural relationship with Israel.
The UNSC has commanded Iran to discontinue uranium enrichment and imposed four sets of sanctions. Earlier in March, the IAEA demanded immediate access to Iran’s Parchin military site. The UN nuclear watchdog has long suspected that nuclear weapons research is occurring at the Parchin site, near Tehran.
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