Iran Nuclear Program
“Iran nuclear program can only be stopped by military means.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?
In November 2011 the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that it had “serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program”. Iran’s Central Bank was sanctioned and the European Union has imposed an embargo on Iranian oil. Right after Iranian President Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he will close the Strait of Hormuz if EU persists on its planned oil embargo. Iranian people get into trouble because 50 to 70 percent of the government’s revenue comes from oil and petrochemical exports and any foreign financial institutions doing business with Iran will be penalized.
Many people believe that sanctions failed. It brought food shortages, hoarding and dying up of investment. For example “it pushed the price of chicken up 30 percent over the past week alone, compared to $2 before sanctions were imposed by western governments as a cause of Iran’s continuing nuclear program. The Iranian government has attempted to offer discounted chicken, which creates lines of up to 14 hours in some Iranian cities. It is a fact that the main agricultural crops of Iran are sugar, oil seeds and tea. According to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech in the Iranian Parliament, the commerce ministry was asked to increase the imports of the basic commodities including sugar so that if Iran is sanctioned, they will not face serious problems, then “the tariff of sugar went down sharply. The result is instead of 500,000 tons of import, they had 2,481,000 tons of sugar imported into the country. Consequently, among 32 sugar companies, eight of them are shut down then the rest instead of working for 5 months in a year they only work for 40 days in a year. “The agriculture of sugar beet totally got destroyed and they have planted potatoes instead. The result is that agriculturists have many potatoes now so this problem made Mr. Ahmadinejad to buy
In November 2011 the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that it had “serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program”. Iran’s Central Bank was sanctioned and the European Union has imposed an embargo on Iranian oil. Right after Iranian President Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that he will close the Strait of Hormuz if EU persists on its planned oil embargo. Iranian people get into trouble because 50 to 70 percent of the government’s revenue comes from oil and petrochemical exports and any foreign financial institutions doing business with Iran will be penalized.
Many people believe that sanctions failed. It brought food shortages, hoarding and dying up of investment. For example “it pushed the price of chicken up 30 percent over the past week alone, compared to $2 before sanctions were imposed by western governments as a cause of Iran’s continuing nuclear program. The Iranian government has attempted to offer discounted chicken, which creates lines of up to 14 hours in some Iranian cities. It is a fact that the main agricultural crops of Iran are sugar, oil seeds and tea. According to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech in the Iranian Parliament, the commerce ministry was asked to increase the imports of the basic commodities including sugar so that if Iran is sanctioned, they will not face serious problems, then “the tariff of sugar went down sharply. The result is instead of 500,000 tons of import, they had 2,481,000 tons of sugar imported into the country. Consequently, among 32 sugar companies, eight of them are shut down then the rest instead of working for 5 months in a year they only work for 40 days in a year. “The agriculture of sugar beet totally got destroyed and they have planted potatoes instead. The result is that agriculturists have many potatoes now so this problem made Mr. Ahmadinejad to buy
Bibliography: “Containing Iran’s missile threat” By Michael Elleman, Routledge (Mar 25th, 2012) “Coping with a nuclearising Iran” By James Dobbins, Routledge (Mar 25th, 2012) “Copping with a nuclearising Iran” By James Dobbins, Routledge (May 27th, 2012) “Drawing the line on Iranian enrichment” By Michael A “Despite endgame fears, no need to rush Iran nuclear talks” By PJ Crowley (May 28th, 2012 “Iran’s economy is now at risk of grave damage” The print edition (Feb 25th, 2012) “Iran’s bold economic reform” The print edition (Jun 23rd, 2011) “Iran Who runs it?” The print edition (Jul 24th, 2008) “Iran repeats threats to halt crude supplies on non-payment, India eyes Saudi, UAE” JIR (Jul 22nd, 2011) “Iranian parliament summons president for questioning” JIR (Feb 16th, 2012) “Why Iran should get the bomb: Nuclear balancing would men stability” Foreign affairs (Jul 2012 – Aug 2012) “Iran’s nuclear conduct remains unclear” JIR (Jun 14th, 2012) “Iran nuclear talks: stand-off continues” By James Reynolds (May 24th, 2012) “Israel’s secret staging ground” By Mark Perry (Mar 28th, 2012) “Iran after Ahmadinejad” By Banafsheh Keynoush, Routledge (May 27th, 2012) “Nuclear diplomacy” The print edition (Feb 25th, 2012) “On the warpath – America and Azerbaijan’s struggle for supremacy” By Matthew Clements, Lian Stromberg, JIR (Oct 10th, 2012) “Proliferation and procurement” JIR (Mar 16th, 2010) “Rumours of war” By Dana H. Allin, Routledge (May 16th, 2012) “Sanctions on Iran: Defining and enabling ‘success’” By Dina Esfandiary and Mark Fitzpatrick, Routledge (June 3rd, 2012) “Sanctions on Iran: Defining and enabling ‘success’” By Dina Esfandiary and Mark Fitzpatrick, Routledge (March 25th, 2012) “Succession and the supreme leader in Iran” By Peter Jones, Routledge (Mar 25th, 2012) “Three-way bet – Hizbullah’s strategic dilemma in Lebanon” JIR (Oct 13th, 2011) “Turkey and America face Iran” By Philip C “Turkey and America face Iran” By Philip C. Bleek and Aaron Stein, Routledge (Jul 4th, 2012) “Would a nuclear Iran make the Middle East more secure?” The print edition (Oct 2012) “Zero hour – the likelihood of an Israel strike on Iran” JIR (Oct 11th, 2012) Endnotes 1. “Iran and chicken” Mehr news agency, mehrnews.com/en/, (Jul 18th, 2012) 2 3. “Spuds of wrath: potatoes-for-votes protest blights Iranian election” By Robert Trait, guardian.co.uk, (May 14th, 2009) 4 5. “Iran’s economy is now at risk of grave damage” The print edition (Feb 25th, 2012) 6