Iran's nuclear deceit

Times Editorial:

Winston Churchill described the actions of Russia as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. The nuclear diplomacy of Iran is constructed more simply: it is one lie after another. Western diplomacy has proved susceptible to the tactic. A US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) in December 2007 concluded that Iran was “less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005”. Documents obtained by The Times reveal that this assessment was worthless.

The information comes from Iran’s most sensitive nuclear project. It concerns a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator. This is the component of a nuclear weapon that triggers the explosion. The plan was initiated in the very year that the NIE delivered its reassuring message.

The documents outline the use of a material called uranium deuteride. Its destructive potential is huge. Robert Oppenheimer, the pioneering nuclear physicist, once ventured: “I think it really not too improbable that a ten cm cube of uranium deuteride . . . might very well blow itself to hell.” In the view of experts contacted by The Times, Iran’s work in this field has no possible civilian application. It makes sense only for a programme to develop a nuclear weapon.

The discovery is an indictment both of Iran’s duplicity and of the West’s complacency....

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There is much more.

It has been clear to me for sometime that Iran is bent on developing nuclear weapons to push its weird religious beliefs on others and it is quite willing to engage in serial deceit to achieve that objective. It is not interested in negotiations other than as a tool to postpone confrontation. Once it has developed the weapon it will be ready for any confrontation and eager to see the deaths of thousands.