KRTDespite the warnings from countries all around the world, Iran is continuing on with their plan to develop uranium. Iran said that they are developing the uranium, which is used in making atomic weapons, as a power source, not to produce weapons of mass destruction. The uranium enrichment is taking place in Tehran.
The discussions on this matter have been given to the Security Council of the United Nations and are being looked at by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The United States, Germany and Russia have also been key speakers as to what they actually think Iran is going to do with the uranium.
“It’s unclear what the outcome will be,” Dr. Jolyon Girard, a history professor, said. He went on to say that the U.S. does not want to handle this the same way they handled matters with Iraq.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is currently researching how far along the development of uranium is in Iran. In the last year, the U.S. intelligence estimated it would take 10 years for Iran to produce their first atomic weapon. Now it could be pushed up as soon as three years.
“I don’t know what is going to happen with this whole Iran situation. I think that the U.S. is going about it in a good way by going through the U.N. I just don’t think we are going to get the full story about the enrichment of the uranium for a while though,” Tyler Sandford, a junior political science major, said.
The United States is staying strong with their plea to stop Iran from creating these weapons of mass destruction. They have told Tehran that if they want to continue to be a part of the international community, they will have to give up on their ideas of nuclear weapons.
According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, “We are doing everything we can to send a strong signal to the Iranians that they have no choice.”
She continued by saying, “If the international community stays really solid, Iran cannot stand the kind of isolation from the international community; there is a chance to resolve this crisis diplomatically, but we can’t afford to waste time.”
Officials in Tehran are still saying that they are just looking to build a nuclear power station and not build atomic weapons. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said that Iran would stand firm against any action taken to pressure it into abandon its controversial nuclear program, according to outlookindia.com.
Although the U.S. is pressuring the U.N. to make the move to stop what they think is Iran enriching uranium to build a bomb, the U.N. is not sure how to make the first move. The IAEA wants to be sure that the plans of creating atomic power to use as warfare is the correct speculation before going in, though it is hard with all of the pressure being put on them from the U.S.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran will “not withdraw a minute step in the field of nuclear energy” and that the United Nations “cannot stop Iran’s peaceful usage of nuclear energy,” according to outlookindia.com.
Posted to the web by Shane Evans
