Yonatan Hassidim
Staff Writer
In 1979, the Muslim Revolution in Iran ended a long-lasting monarchy, forming the most significant theocratic government in the world. Now, the goals of this regime are to become the leading country in the Muslim world. To ensure their survival, ward-off foreign invasion, and become a superpower in the Middle East, Iran secretly plans to develop nuclear weapons. Iran views the land of Israel as a holy Muslim country whose land has been stolen. In consequence, Iran intends to mark Israel as a common enemy to the whole of the Middle East. While most of the world views Iran’s nuclear power as problematic, it is specifically detrimental and threatening to the survival of key Middle Eastern countries such as Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Under the Obama administration, a diplomatic approach to Iran’s nuclear weapons was seen as best. Leaders agreed to end Iran’s pursuit of atomic weapons through supervision. However, many Middle Eastern countries believed this approach was incorrect because they thought Iran would continue their plans despite the supervision. They also noted that the agreement didn’t prevent Iran from developing long-range missiles, which could carry atomic bombs. The last problem in the agreement was that the supervision would end after 15 years, leaving Iran the opportunity to speedily work towards an atomic bomb.
The diplomatic approach was viewed differently under the Trump Administration. On January 31, 2018, Israeli intelligence was able to steal approximately 50,000 pages of plans indicating Iran’s intention to continue building nuclear weapons, proving Iran’s dishonesty to the Western world regarding their nuclear production. Consequently, Trump abandoned the 2015 Nuclear Deal and imposed an economic sanction, prohibiting the exportation of petroleum and importation of many other items. While these sanctions crippled the Iranian economy, Iran now claims to be pushing their nuclear weapon production more than ever.
Now, the Biden Administration must deal with the dilemma of achieving another agreement, hopefully, with better attention to the loopholes of the previous deal. Since the Iranian regime has become even more radical, achieving a better deal will be difficult. However, Biden does have the military options to destroy any sites which are working on enriching uranium. The Biden administration’s preference would be a diplomatic approach, though.
Soon, the Biden Administration’s plan will be apparent; the success of their approach will be crucial for the stability in the Middle East.
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