U.S. policy toward Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program Essay

U.S. policy toward Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program - Essay Example There is no defined way of getting Iran to drop its nuclear program. But a combination of various technologies can be used to corner the country into doing so. The US government should follow both the carrot and stick approach to persuade Iran to comply by its sanctions. It should make sure its policies are bilateral and multilateral to gain support from the other countries. Here is a threefold plan to achieve the same. 1. The third world countries should be convinced regarding the threat of the increased arms proliferation and the advantages the current US sanctions might bring them to gain their support. The Iranian neighbours should be lured in to give more support to the US policies. 2. The Iranian public should be made aware of the losses they incur due to the sanctions. They can play a key role in making their government drop such activities for the general economic growth of the country. 3. The US government should stop imposing more strict sanctions on the Iranian oil market. It should bargain technological help in core areas in exchange of a cease on the nuclear program. Current Status Iran suffers from various rounds of US sanctions currently. The sanctions have banned the supply of heavy weaponry to Iran by any other country. It has prevented the exports of Iranian arms to other countries and frozen the assets of around 39 individuals and 141 companies whom it think is responsible for strengthening the nuclear power in Iran. The latest sanctions proposed by the US on prohibit all foreign financial institutions to have business contacts with Iran's Central Bank. Under requests from the American government the European Union and South Korea have also agreed not to purchase oil from Iran which comes as a heavy blow to Iranian economy. These sanctions have been imposed upon Iran because they have breached to comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regulations as alerted by the UN's watchdog (Not Quite too Late, 2012). Iran’s Nucl ear Power The US intelligence reports states that Iran purchases advanced technology from Russia and the products necessary to materialize the technology from China. There is an assumption that Iran will develop and test an IRBM or intermediate-range ballistic missile and an ICBM with the support of these countries by 2015. The reports from the CIA state that Iran has close tie ups with North Korea and it is planning to create TD-2 type ICBM and test it within 2015 (Iranian Ballistic Missile WMD Threat to the US, 2000). They also fear a huge range of chemical and biological weapons are stocked by the Iranian government which might be used directly against the US or simply be sold to groups or countries which target the US as their primary enemy. Is it an Imaginary Fear? The US government should consider how far the previous sanctions have prevented Iran from producing the nuclear weapons. It is a proven fact that the sanctions which have been passed on the country for the past 30 ye ars have given very little result. But looking into Iran's ballistic missile history, there is no solid proof that they are capable of developing long-range ballistic missiles or huge nuclear weapons. They created a Shahab-4 which claimed to act as a ballistic missile but turned out to be just an SLV with minimum military applications. Tehran has been boasting about its plan to create