Believe it or not! US helps Iran launch nuclear programme? What is it? Israel bombs nuclear sites because...

US President Donald Trump has brazenly supported Israel's attacks on the Iranian nuclear facilities in Natanz, Arak and Fordow. Still, you may be shocked to know that it was Washington that helped Tehran begin its atomic programme. A few years after the establishment of the state of Israel, US President  Dwight Eisenhower encouraged Muhammad Raza Shah Pahlavi of Iran in 1957 to launch the nuclear programme, of course for civilian purposes. Iran constructed atomic power reactors in the 1960s and 1970s. However, after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the US-Iran ties and the power dynamics of the area changed forever. 

Iranian nuclear facilities

Tehran continued its nuclear progremme during the 1980s and for the first time during the Iran-Iraq War, the world powers began to doubt the malafide intentions of the Islamic Republic. Iran started a full nuclear cycle for the first time during the 1990s and allegedly got the centrifuge technology from Pakistan and other sources illegally and clandestinely. Its Natanz and Arak enrichment facilities were exposed in 2002 and the underground facilities of Fordow came to light in 2009.

(Ayatollah Ruhollah Komeinei, Iranian Shiite Leader) 

Iran has 60% enriched Uranium

Coming under pressure from the West and particularly the US, Tehran declared to stop the nuclear programme in 2003. However, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in 2009 that the Islamic nation has developed the capacity to enrich Uranium by 60%. One needs only about 4% enrichment for generating electricity while Uranium enriched of more than 90% is required for making bombs. Iran came under economic sanctions from the US in 2010 for ignoring the IAEA guidelines, and not opening its facilities for the agency's inspection and other related reasons.

US-Iran Nuclear Deal 

It was US President Barack Obama who somehow cajoled the Shiite regime to sign the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) in 2015 in exchange for lifting the economic sanctions. However, when Donald Trump became president in 2016, he put pressure on Iran to altogether stop the programme. He announced to move out of the JCPOA in 2018 and reimposed economic sanctions, Tehran announced to resume nuclear enrichment, though it pledged that it was only for civilian purposes, a promise, no one believed. 

(Nuclear Power Plant at Bushehr, Iran)

Why did Israel bomb Iran's nuclear sites?

The nuclear watchdog believes that Iran has enough enriched Uranium to make a bomb in one week. Further, it can stockpile enough fissile material to make ten bombs in one month. Iran is one of the countries that have rejected Israel's right to exist from the very beginning and vowed to destroy it. Tel Aviv apprehends that Tehran may drop a nuclear bomb on it in a decisive war, wiping it off from the map of the world. The Jewish state has bombed the Iranian nuclear facilities under this excuse. What next? Will Iran return to the negotiation table and sign a nuclear deal with the US?