Why Iran wants the bomb ( the Telegraph)   –

“For a country driven by violent political, religious and social divisions, the one issue that is guaranteed to unite Iran’s 75 million citizens is their country’s inalienable right to build an atom bomb.

Any discussion of its nuclear programme must, of necessity, commence with the oft-repeated Iranian caveat that its ambitions are peaceful, and that they are focused solely on the development of nuclear power, rather than building weapons. But that claim now looks increasingly threadbare following publication of this week’s uncompromising report by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which, for the first time, accuses Iran of trying to acquire a nuclear weapons arsenal.

That is certainly the conclusion most reasonable people will draw from the report, which provides a damning catalogue of wilful Iranian wrong-doing lasting more than a decade. It details Iran’s clandestine efforts to obtain fissile material whose usual application is for the production of nuclear warheads. It confirms that Iran is actively seeking to develop a long-range missile that can be fitted with a nuclear warhead. And it reveals that Iranian scientists – aided by a rogue nuclear expert from the former Soviet Union – have conducted experiments to develop a trigger mechanism for a nuclear weapon.”

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