Iran Will 'Soon' Build Nuclear Bomb

West Continues Speculation on Iran Nuclear Work.

Special thanks to Iran Review

(TEHRAN Iran Review) - One of the most common political tools, which has been always used by Western politicians is to aggrandize a security crisis anywhere in the world and repeat it in different ways. During recent years, efforts made by Iran to master nuclear technology have been used as an excuse by the Western officials in order to cast doubt on peaceful goals of Iran's nuclear energy program and warn the world that Iran will “soon” build a nuclear bomb. However, the time limit denoted by the word “soon” is somehow ambiguous and cannot create the purported psychological effect that Western states look for. Therefore, they have given various deadlines like “up to one year,” “within the next three years,” or “in a decade” as their varied forecast on how long it will take Iran to build the nuclear bomb. The Israeli officials have even gone a step further by giving unbelievable and comical deadlines such as “three months from now” and even “in 60 minutes!” as their forecast on the time period it will take Iran to build the nuclear bomb. In the latest instance of such bizarre forecasts, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a strange measure during his address to the 67th annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York, showed drawing of a bomb to his audience and drew a red line using a marker pen to denote Israel’s red line on Iran's nuclear program. He, once more, projected that Iran would be in the possession of the nuclear bomb by the next spring, or summer, or at most, next fall.

The memory of audiences is usually ephemeral and short-term. Therefore, as time goes by, the impact of news they have heard gradually erodes. To prevent this, Western officials and news media have been regularly repeating their warning about the threat emanating from Iran building a nuclear bomb. They are also incessantly talking in various forms about Iran's nuclear bomb and a possible strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Although this trend has gained new momentum in recent years, a cursory glance at the news archives of the Western media will prove that innuendoes as well as direct and indirect references by Western officials to the possibility of developing nuclear weapons by Iran can be tracked as far back as 28 years ago. Such forecasts are usually made over short periods of time in order to put more emphasis on the significance of the conceived security threat. The notable point, however, is why after the projected time elapses and there is no sign to prove that Iran has been trying to develop nuclear weapons, no media outlet, analyst, expert, or official asks why all these forecasts have been wrong?

Instead of posing the aforesaid logical question, the Western media have instead, put new forecasts on their headlines without showing much care about whether those forecasts materialize in the real world and within the time limit specified. There have been seldom cases in which the media have tried to explain why Iran has not developed nuclear weapons in projected time, but even then they have lost no time to reiterate that Iran will “soon” build the bomb. All phrases used by the Western and Israeli officials and news media in this regard are coordinated and run on the same theme and most of them predict the same deadline for Iran's development of nuclear weapons. In some forecasts, they gave 2000 as the year when Iran will be in possession of a nuclear bomb. After the 2000s began, the Western officials announced that Iran will have the bomb by 2005. The year 2005 passed without Iran developing any nuclear weapons. Then the Western officials announced that Iran will develop the nuclear bomb by 2010. We are now in 2012 and there is no evidence to prove that Iran is planning to build a nuclear bomb or that there has been the slightest diversion in its nuclear energy program toward military purposes. However, the Western media continue to give such forecasts with political circles in the West and in Israel giving 2013-2015 as the deadline for development of nuclear weapons by Iran. A brief review of selected quotes from the Western as well as Israeli officials and media about when Iran will have nuclear weapons will easily reveal various cases of such contradictory remarks.

The measure taken by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his recent address to the UN General Assembly was the last link in this long chain when he claimed that Iran's nuclear energy program will reach the point of no return by the spring of 2013.

What conclusion can be reached when all these allegations are considered in one place?

Afsaneh Ahadi is an Expert on Strategic & US Affairs

First published by Iran Review; submitted to Salem-News.com by Firouzeh Mirrazavi, Deputy Editor of Iran Review.Org