Iran nuclear crisis Can talks succeed Image copyright. Getty Images. Iran and world powers have extended negotiations to end a decade old crisis over the Iranian nuclear programme. There are still obstacles to a deal though, compounded by years of distrust. Why is there a crisis World powers suspect Iran has not been honest about its nuclear programme and is seeking the ability to build a nuclear bomb. Iran says it has the right to nuclear energy and stresses that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only. Diplomats have been seeking a deal that would allow Iran to have nuclear power but reduce the likelihood of it gaining nuclear weapons. How close are they to a deal Image copyright. Reuters. Image caption. The two negotiating teams have accused each other of making unrealistic demands. Irans Nucluer Program' title='Irans Nucluer Program' />The Emerging Arab Response to Irans Unabated Nuclear Program. The Emerging Arab Response to Irans. Iran has doggedly pushed on with its nuclear program in. After yet another round of negotiations, international diplomats will leave Austria without a deal on Irans nuclear program. Crack For Hotspot Shield. Iran and the so called P51 the US, UK, France, China and Russia plus Germany agreed an interim accord in November 2. Islamic Republic curb sensitive nuclear activities in return for relief from sanctions that have crippled its economy. A deadline of July 2. Despite significant progress being made, both sides agreed in November that another seven months were needed. Western diplomats are confident of securing a political agreement by 1 March 2. July. How did the crisis start Image copyright. The Sims 1 Gothic Objects here. APImage caption. Irans former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, rejected curbs on its nuclear programme. Irans nuclear programme became public in 2. Enriched uranium can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear weapons, while spent fuel from a heavy water reactor contains plutonium suitable for a bomb. Iran subsequently agreed to inspections by the global nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA. But the IAEA was unable to confirm Iran had not sought to develop nuclear weapons. This led the US and its European allies to press Iran to stop enriching uranium. Talks failed to make any progress and in 2. IAEA referred Iran to the UN Security Council for failing to comply with the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty NPT. Since then, the Security Council has adopted six resolutions requiring Iran to stop enriching uranium, some imposing sanctions. In 2. 01. 2, the US and EU began imposing additional sanctions on Iranian oil exports and banks, putting pressure on Iran to negotiate. What do the world powers want The US says any agreement should ensure it would take Iran at least a year to make enough fissile material for a nuclear warhead if it chose to do so. Such a limit on the so called break out time would require a sharp reduction in Irans uranium capacity. The US is believed to want Irans enrichment capacity to equate to the production capability of less than 4,5. Iran currently has about 1. The P51 also wants Iran to limit its research and development activities, which could enhance centrifuge efficiency. It believes the enrichment restrictions should remain in place for at least two decades and be backed up by extensive monitoring. What does Iran say Image copyright. AFPImage caption. Iran says it needs the enrichment capacity to produce fuel for the Bushehr power plant from 2. Iran is reportedly offering to freeze the current number of operating centrifuges for three to seven years. After that, it argues, there must be sufficient enrichment capacity to produce fuel for the Bushehr power plant when its fuel supply agreement with Russia expires in 2. That would require Iran to expand its current capacity 1. In return, Iran says it would ship almost all its stock of low enriched uranium to Russia and accept more intrusive inspections by the IAEA. The P51 has noted that Russia, which recently agreed to build two new reactors in Iran, is prepared to supply fuel for Bushehr for its lifetime. What other obstacles are there to a deal Domestic political constraints are being blamed for hindering a compromise on enrichment. Analysts say Iranian negotiators would struggle to defend an agreement that does not preserve their countrys current capacity. Western negotiators would likewise struggle to sell a deal that allowed Iran to rapidly produce weapons grade uranium. Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said any deal would need to see Iran halt all enrichment activity. Image copyright. Reuters. Image caption. Irans economy has been hit hard by sanctions targeting its key energy sector. There has also been disagreement over how and when sanctions imposed on Iran would be lifted. Iran wants UN sanctions to be lifted quickly. However, the P51 believes that should happen in the final phase of any accord because they could not be quickly or easily reimposed. President Barack Obama can suspend sanctions imposed by the US Congress, but he cannot lift them permanently, which might dissuade companies from resuming trade with Iran. Why is Iran suspected of seeking nuclear weapons The US has alleged that Iran had a nuclear weapons programme in 2. Iranian leaders stopped it when it was discovered. Image copyright. AFPImage caption. The IAEAs director general, Yukiya Amano, has demanded access to the Parchin military site. In 2. 00. 9 Irans Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared We fundamentally reject nuclear weapons. But the IAEA published a report in 2. Iran had carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device. The report drew attention to a military complex at Parchin, which the IAEA has been unable to visit since 2. In September 2. 01. IAEA said Iran had failed to give a satisfactory explanation of its research at Parchin into detonators that could be used to trigger a nuclear weapon or explained studies that could help calculate the explosive yield of one. How does Iran justify its refusal to obey UN resolutions Image copyright. AFPImage caption. Iran has insisted its nuclear programme is entirely for peaceful purposes. Iran has said it is simply doing what it is allowed to do under the NPT, which allows signatory states to enrich uranium to be used as fuel for power generation. Such states have to remain under inspection by the IAEA. Iran is under inspection, though not under the strictest rules allowed because it will not agree to them. Could Iran build a nuclear bomb if it chose to Image copyright. AFPImage caption. Iran has the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. There are mixed views on this. US Secretary of State John Kerry said in April 2. Iran had the ability to produce enough weapons grade uranium for a nuclear bomb within two months. However, Mr Kerry said such a break out window did not mean Iran yet had a warhead or suitable delivery system. That was also before the IAEA confirmed Iran had converted all of its medium enriched uranium into forms that were less of a proliferation risk. Any bomb making process would likely be done in secret, so estimating timelines would be extremely difficult. JPG' alt='Irans Nucluer Program' title='Irans Nucluer Program' />Nuclear weapons and Israel Wikipedia. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, with its first deliverable nuclear weapon allegedly created in December 1. However, Israel has never officially denied nor admitted to having nuclear weapons, instead repeating over the years that it would not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East. Israel has also refused to sign the Treaty on the Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons NPT despite international pressure to do so, saying that would be contrary to its national security interests. Additionally, Israel has made extensive efforts to deny other regional actors the ability to acquire their own nuclear weapons. The counter proliferation, preventive strike. Begin Doctrine added another dimension to Israels existing nuclear policy. Israel remains the only country in the Middle East believed to possess them. Israel started investigating the nuclear field soon after its founding in 1. French support secretly began building the Negev Nuclear Research Center, a facility near Dimona housing a nuclear reactor and reprocessing plant in the late 1. The first extensive details of the weapons program came in October 5, 1. Mordechai Vanunu, a technician formerly employed at the Negev Nuclear Research Center. Vanunu was later kidnapped by the Mossad and brought back to Israel, where he was sentenced to 1. Current estimates put the size of the Israeli nuclear arsenal at between 8. Jericho series of intermediate to intercontinental range ballistic missiles. Development historyeditPre Dimona 1. Israels first Prime Minister. David Ben Gurion was nearly obsessed with obtaining nuclear weapons to prevent the Holocaust from recurring. He stated, What Einstein, Oppenheimer, and Teller, the three of them are Jews, made for the United States, could also be done by scientists in Israel, for their own people. Ben Gurion decided to recruit Jewish scientists from abroad even before the end of the 1. ArabIsraeli War that established Israels independence. He and others, such as head of the Weizmann Institute of Science and defense ministry scientist Ernst David Bergmann, believed and hoped that Jewish scientists such as Oppenheimer and Teller would help Israel. In 1. 94. 9 a unit of the Israel Defense Forces Science Corps, known by the Hebrew acronym HEMED GIMMEL, began a two year geological survey of the Negev. While a preliminary study was initially prompted by rumors of petroleum fields, one objective of the longer two year survey was to find sources of uranium some small recoverable amounts were found in phosphate deposits. That year Hemed Gimmel funded six Israeli physics graduate students to study overseas, including one to go to the University of Chicago and study under Enrico Fermi, who had overseen the worlds first artificial and self sustaining nuclear chain reaction. In early 1. 95. 2 Hemed Gimmel was moved from the IDF to the Ministry of Defense and was reorganized as the Division of Research and Infrastructure EMET. That June, Bergmann was appointed by Ben Gurion to be the first chairman of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission IAEC. Hemed Gimmel was renamed Machon 4 during the transfer, and was used by Bergmann as the chief laboratory of the IAEC by 1. Machon 4, working with the Department of Isotope Research at the Weizmann Institute, developed the capability to extract uranium from the phosphate in the Negev and a new technique to produce indigenous heavy water. The techniques were two years more advanced than American efforts. Bergmann, who was interested in increasing nuclear cooperation with the French, sold both patents to the Commissariat lnergie atomique CEA for 6. Although they were never commercialized, it was a consequential step for future French Israeli cooperation. In addition, Israeli scientists probably helped construct the G 1 plutonium production reactor and UP 1 reprocessing plant at Marcoule. France and Israel had close relations in many areas. France was principal arms supplier for the young Jewish state, and as instability spread through French colonies in North Africa, Israel provided valuable intelligence obtained from contacts with Sephardi Jews in those countries. At the same time Israeli scientists were also observing Frances own nuclear program, and were the only foreign scientists allowed to roam at will at the nuclear facility at Marcoule. In addition to the relationships between Israeli and French Jewish and non Jewish researchers, the French believed that cooperation with Israel could give them access to international Jewish nuclear scientists. After U. S. President. Dwight Eisenhower announced the Atoms for Peace initiative, Israel became the second country to sign on following Turkey, and signed a peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States on July 1. This culminated in a public signing ceremony on March 2. Nachal Soreq, which would be used to shroud the construction of a much larger facility with the French at Dimona. In 1. 98. 6 Francis Perrin, French high commissioner for atomic energy from 1. Israeli scientists were invited to the Saclay Nuclear Research Centre, this cooperation leading to a joint effort including sharing of knowledge between French and Israeli scientists especially those with knowledge from the Manhattan Project. According to Lieutenant Colonel Warner D. Farr in a report to the USAF Counterproliferation Center while France was previously a leader in nuclear research Israel and France were at a similar level of expertise after the war, and Israeli scientists could make significant contributions to the French effort. Progress in nuclear science and technology in France and Israel remained closely linked throughout the early fifties. Furthermore, according to Farr, There were several Israeli observers at the French nuclear tests and the Israelis had unrestricted access to French nuclear test explosion data. Dimona 1. NegotiationeditThe French justified their decision to provide Israel a nuclear reactor by claiming it was not without precedent. In September 1. 95. Canada publicly announced that it would help the Indian government build a heavy water research reactor, the CIRUS reactor, for peaceful purposes. When Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, France proposed Israel attack Egypt and invade the Sinai as a pretext for France and Britain to invade Egypt posing as peacekeepers with the true intent of seizing the Suez Canal see Suez Crisis. In exchange, France would provide the nuclear reactor as the basis for the Israeli nuclear weapons program. Shimon Peres, sensing the opportunity on the nuclear reactor, accepted. On September 1. 7, 1. Peres and Bergmann reached a tentative agreement in Paris for the CEA to sell Israel a small research reactor. This was reaffirmed by Peres at the Protocol of Svres conference in late October for the sale of a reactor to be built near Dimona and for a supply of uranium fuel. Israel benefited from an unusually pro Israel French government during this time. After the Suez Crisis led to the threat of Soviet intervention and the British and French were being forced to withdraw under pressure from the U. S., Ben Gurion sent Peres and Golda Meir to France.