Have We Already Failed to Ensure That Iran ‘Never Gets a Nuclear Weapon’?

Jun 25, 2021
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Also published in The Hill
About the Authors
Simon Henderson
Simon Henderson

Simon Henderson is the Baker Senior Fellow and director of the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at The Washington Institute, specializing in energy matters and the conservative Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

Articles & Testimony

Such weapons have spread surprisingly slowly since the end of World War II, but this template may be changing amid unsustainable ambiguity over the future of Tehran’s program.

What is a nuclear weapon? The answer is both technical and political—all the more so because, on Wednesday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan met the visiting Israeli Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, and “affirmed the president’s commitment to ensuring that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.” But is there an agreed definition of “nuclear weapon” between the U.S. and Israel, or was Sullivan being ambiguous? Would Iran be allowed to have capability, or even a device or two? To be cynical, Iran’s nuclear weapons program (few seriously judge that Tehran doesn’t have one) is the slowest in world history...

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Topics

Military & Security Proliferation

Regions & Countries

Iran Israel