Analysis: It took three decades, but in 10 years Iran will be able to run, not sneak, to A-bomb
Iran has been pursuing nuclear weapons for most of the last three decades.
The quest began at the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, when the Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini famously “drank the poisoned chalice” and accepted UN Security Council Resolution 598 that put at end to that eight-year, blood-drenched war. Never again, Khomenei vowed, would Iran drink such poison, and the country’s race for nuclear arms – something that would have precluded the need for what Khomeini viewed as a capitulation – was on.
During the last nearly 30 years the world – with varying degrees of seriousness and intensity – has tried to block that path.