13.10.2024
Seyed Hossein Mousavian is a former ambassador to Germany. He was a spokesman for Iran in the nuclear negotiations in the EU in 2005. He is now a researcher at Princeton University in the USA.
Iran has no interest in escalating the situation. The new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, wants to reduce tensions and focus on diplomacy and the economy, Hossein explains.
– Netanyahu is against this policy. That is one of the reasons he wants to drag Iran and the USA into a major war.
Iran has stated that they support a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction and will commit to this, according to Hossein.
–Unless they are attacked.
For the question is not whether Iran can become a nuclear power. It’s about whether they want to. Previously, Iran has weighed the value of nuclear weapons against international reactions. Now the value of possessing “the world’s most powerful deterrent” may be greatest.
American intelligence estimates that it will take Iran about six months to build a bomb. Therefore, several Israeli officials believe that Israel must act now. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said they have the “greatest opportunity in 50 years” to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.
An attack on the nuclear facilities would create such a severe security situation that Iran would feel they have no choice:
– Then Iran could become a nuclear power, says Hossein.
But Israel cannot attack Iran’s nuclear facilities alone. Now, the fate lies in the hands of the USA, according to Hossein.
“The Worst Deal in History”
Experts agree that it is hard to avoid thinking about how the situation could have been different.
In 2018, Donald Trump withdrew the USA from the nuclear deal with Iran. Experts warned Trump against doing so, but he insisted that it was “the worst deal in history.”
Trump believed that the deal led to the international community pouring money into Iran and “financing terrorism.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump for making a “historic decision.”
This decision led Iran to begin developing nuclear facilities, points out Hossein.
