Iran

Nuclear Energy - Iran's leaders have worked to pursue nuclear energy technology since the 1950s, spurred by the launch of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program. It made steady progress, with Western help, through the early 1970s. But concern over Iranian intentions followed by the upheaval of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 effectively ended outside assistance. Revelations in 2002 and 2003 of clandestine research into fuel enrichment and conversion raised international concern that Iran's ambitions had metastasized beyond peaceful intent. Iran has consistently denied allegations it seeks to develop a nuclear bomb. Despite a U.S. intelligence finding in November 2007 that concluded Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, Bush administration officials continue to warn that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapon.

Natural uranium contains 0.7 percent of the uranium-235 isotope, and generally, light-water power reactors require enrichment levels of 3 percent to 5 percent of low-enriched uranium, ( LEU). Weapons-grade uranium—also known as highly-enriched uranium,(HEU) is around 90 percent. (technically, HEU is any concentration over 20 percent ). According to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) , Iran is capable of enriching to about 4.7 percent. An expert on Iran's nuclear program and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, estimates Iran produced roughly 150 kg of LEU in the first five months of 2008 . Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow for nonproliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, says if Iran were to stockpile sufficient LEU they would be able to produce 25 kg of weapons-grade uranium for production of a single bomb "within a couple of months." Iran is using centrifuges to enrich uranium hexafluoride gas, increasing the concentration of uranium-235. An Iran expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said that Iran would have to have between " 600 and 700 kilos" of LEU to make enough HEU for a single bomb.

Under the terms of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), signatories have the "inalienable right" to produce fuel for civilian energy production, either by enriching uranium or separating plutonium, In September 2005, IAEA's Board of Governors expressed that Iran's nuclear program is not exclusively for peaceful purposes. Five months later, the board voted to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, and in December 2006, the UN Security Council adopted the first of three resolutions imposing sanctions to punish Iran for continued uranium enrichment.

In 2008, Ahmadenijad once again failed to heed UN security council's call to halt his nuclear activities in the country immediately by reiterating again the program is for peaceful purposes. As a signatory to NPT and member of UN, Iran is obligated to provide IAEA's unlimited and unconditional access within its border of nuclear program sites.

With his ever rising anti-semantic rhetoric and constant threat to annihilate state of Israel to exert his leadership position among Islamic countries, he manage to raise the already high regional tension in middle east. By continue to pursue his nuclear ambition clandestinely, his hope of raising Israel level of anxiety in return for a drastic action from his perceived enemy to fulfill his messianic message of total destruction of Israel justifiably. It is just a matter of time Iran will possess unclear weapons if it is allowed to continue its enrichment activities clandestinely; judging from Ahmadenijad previous contact with Pakistanis nuclear scientist to get hold of black market nuclear bomb making technology and purchased of weapon grade component parts through brokers in Malaysia, the intention is indeed quite clear.

On the other hand, Israel may see a preemptive military strike on Iran as the only way to ensure it own survival in a hostile region and only solution to its bigger neighbor's anti Jewish state posture. In light of the veil of secrecy surrounding Ahmadenijad's nuclear activities, it will be viewed by Israel as a weapon program aim at destroying Israel and probably will provoke the intended reaction from the Jewish state.

Rightly or not, it's in the interest of the Iranians people to make sure that their leader is acting within international rule of law for their own benefit while pursuing national or personal agenda. So far Ahmadenijad has acted to isolate them further from the world community, in seeking to exploit and aggravate the already tense situation in middle east, to make sure that an everlasting peace brokered by USA in middle east will never arrive.