Honest question, if the sanctions are causing misery and the people basically have to choose between death and poverty, will it not just cause more resentment? Wouldn't the people eventually become so angry at the Western World that they support Nuclear proliferation for, at best, defense/power and, at worst, revenge?
I personally full supported Obama's sanctions on Iran. They had a purpose (Stop Iran's nuclear program) that made sense and was achievable.
And they achieved it. All European countries and united nations and Obama administration confirmed that Iran was committed to the nuclear deal.Even current and former Israel generals wrote letters to show support for Obama's deal with Iran which stopped Iranian nuclear program.
What the current administration wants is much much more than that [0]. They are basically telling the Islamic Republic to shoot itself in the head. Or face sanctions.
In 1963 JFK told Ben-Gurion that Israel developing nuclear weapons would lead to other countries in the region also pursuing nuclear weapons. Israel did it anyway, JFK's prediction obviously came true, and now America is saddled with Israel's problems; trying to stop Iran from doing what Israel did, because Israel did it. The sanctions are decades late and aimed at the wrong country.
I think it was Einstein, Openheimer and others who told the U.S that there will be a nuclear arms race, way WAY before Israel acquired nukes. Let's keep up the blame game though.
> Countries that have felt threatened ([...] Israel) have developed nuclear weapons.
What evidence is there for this? At the time, Israel claimed that Egypt was trying to develop a nuclear bomb. However in his 1963 letter to Ben-Gurion, JFK says that American intelligence agencies had found no evidence of this and believed Egypt did not have facilities capable of it (unlike Israel.) To ny knowledge, in the decades since then, evidence of the alleged Egyptian bomb program has never surfaced.
> "I can well appreciate your concern for developments in the UAR. But I see no present or imminent nuclear threat to Israel from there. I am assured that our intelligence on this question is good and that the Egyptians do not presently have any installation comparable to Dimona, nor any facilities potentially capable of nuclear weapons production. But, of course, if you have information that would support a contrary conclusion, I should like to receive it from you through Ambassador Barbour. We have the capacity to check it."
? Israel was invaded and nearly overrun several times, by many of it's neighbours, with a combined population 30x it's own.
It's neighbours continued to make public proclamations that they wanted to 'wipe it out'.
If that is not 'threatening' then what is?
Iran, in contrast, faces no real existential threat. Not Russia, Turkey. Saudis couldn't really if they wanted to. Iraq is weak and they control most of it.
Israel was the first country in the middle east to acquire nuclear weapons. The UAR did not have nuclear weapons and wasn't developing them (despite Israel's unsubstantiated claims to the contrary), nor did Israel need nuclear weapons to defend itself (Ben-Gurion admitted that in 1963 to JFK.) And even if they weren't capable of defending themselves with conventional arms, the JFK administration offered to ensure the protection of Israel in exchange for inspections of Dimona to stop Israel's bomb program. Israel turned this offer down, and refused inspections of Dimona.
Israel did not need an atomic bomb. In developing nuclear weapons (in cooperation with the white supremacist state of South Africa, it should be noted) Israel ensured that other middle east countries would eventually seek them. They deliberately threw water onto an oil fire.
Israel is a small country without allies (it didn't then) which was invaded a few times by much bigger nations around it, some of whom, to this day, want to destroy it.
Of all non-superpower nations, Israel's quest for Nukes is probably the most rational.
They have zero will or capability to wage any material war of conquest (beyond East Bank/Golan), there is zero chance that they could feasibly use those weapons to 'invade' Jordan, Syria, Saudi etc.. They couldn't hope to occupy any such territory. Ergo - they can only materially be used for defence. Besides - anything else and the entire world (including the US) would turn on them.
Israel's nukes has not caused others to seek nukes really - that's far flung. Iran is not threatened in any way by Israel.
Ironically - the opposite is true: Iran's nukes will destabilize the entire region and cause major problems. Saudi has access to nuke tech from Pakistan, and if Iran ever for a moment brandishes such a weapon, they will magically appear in Saudi very quickly.
Other players are likely to be able to overcome the geopolitical pressure to avoid them, but the fact is 'they would want to have them'.
Nobody is afraid of Israel, but almost everyone around Iran is afraid of Iran.
The 'conflict' in the ME is no longer Israel vs. Egypt an everyone else, now, it's Iran vs. Saudi and everyone else.
> Israel is a small country without allies (it didn't then)
This just isn't true, America was offering to ensure their safety and Israel believed that if they were attacked, America and other first world countries would come to their defense. They acquired nuclear weapons anyway. This is all spelled out in the correspondence you can read here: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/john-f-kennedy-administ...
What's more, those documents reveal the Israeli government was exaggerating the military competence and ability of the UAR in PR campaigns directed at the Israeli and American publics.
correction/clarification: Apartheid South Africa not only had a nuclear weapons program (in cooperation with Israel) - they had nuclear weapons.
South Africa hastily dismantled its nuclear weapons program ahead of majority rule - becoming the only country to voluntarily give up nuclear weapons. Though it still stocks the weapons-grade nuclear material in storage.
Developing a nuclear bomb isn't the same as developing an actually useful nuclear weapon: you still have to develop a rocket to deliver it somewhere else than your test site.
Every country that has the ability to enrich uranium is 99% of the way there towards developing nuclear weapons.
Iran feels threatened. Countries that have felt threatened (North Korea, India, Pakistan, Israel) have developed nuclear weapons.
The sanctions are there as a deterrent to Iran having a Nuclear weapons program.
Anyone who thinks it is possible for a country to have Nuclear power but not nuclear weapons is a fool.