From the Shah’s petrodollar-fueled reactor ambitions of the 1970s to today’s covert enrichment halls hidden beneath mountains, Iran’s nuclear journey has been guided by a simple logic: sovereignty demands a bomb. When global oil prices soared in 1973, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi seized the moment, envisioning a network of civilian reactors that would both power Iran’s cities and proclaim its place among modern nations. Yet his bid faltered when Henry Kissinger insisted on U.S. veto rights over spent fuel—a demand the Shah rejected as an unfair restriction on a Non-Proliferation Treaty member. That impasse set a pattern: every regime in Tehran would treat nuclear technology as both an energy source and a shield against foreign domination.
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