Short Note : Iran’s Nuclear Program

Iran has recently announced that it would increase the uranium enrichment of its uranium program to 3.67%. While this has sent alarm bells ringing in the United States and in the other West European countries, Iran claims that the uranium enrichment level is still below the refinement needed for nuclear weapons. Even the nuclear plant built by Iran at Bushehr requires a fuel concentration of 5%.

What is happening?

Iran claims to have a nuclear program that aims to enrich and refine uranium for its nuclear plants which it claims are been built for energy generation. The other use of the uranium is for medical research. Countries like the United States and Isreal claim that Iran’s nuclear program aims to manufacture nuclear weapons which will destabilize the region.

What’s the catch?

While the US and Iran had come to a nuclear deal, the US unilaterally pulled out of the deal and also imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran. This led to Iran violating several key provisions of the deal and this has since spiraled out of control. The sanctions imposed by the US have hurt the Iranian Economy and oil which is a major Iranian export has been curtailed by the nations earlier trading with Iran (including India).
Iran claims to have lost at least USD 100 in oil revenue due to the sanctions imposed by the United States.

What lies ahead?

The global community led by China is pushing for an early resolution of the crisis which has seen an advanced US drone shot down by the Iranian Military and caused major instability in the Gulf region.