Amid reports of an Iran-Israel ceasefire, the United States had tried everything to kill Iran’s nuclear program, including economic sanctions, international isolation, and military strikes. Ironically, it was the United States that was responsible for initiating a nuclear program in Tehran before the 1979 Iranian Revolution changed the game.
In 1953, the United States and the United Kingdom staged a coup in Iran that overthrew the then-Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and helped Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (popularly known as the Shah) assume power.
This incident, referred to as the 1953 Iranian coup d’état, saw the Shah solidify his authority and was made possible by the CIA and MI6’s assistance to anti-Mossadegh groups in the country.
The United States played a significant role in initiating Iran’s nuclear program during the mid-20th century, primarily under the framework of the Atoms for Peace program that was aimed at promoting civilian nuclear energy globally.
In 1957, the United States and Iran signed an agreement to establish the Tehran Nuclear Research Center at Tehran University. Under this accord, the US agreed to provide Iran with technical assistance and nuclear technology.
Subsequently, a 5-megawatt research reactor was installed at the Tehran Nuclear Research Center in 1967. This reactor was powered by highly enriched uranium (HEU) supplied by the United States. The assistance also included training Iranian scientists and providing technical expertise.
Under US encouragement, Iran signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968, committing to peaceful nuclear use and accepting International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. This was a time when the US viewed Iran under the Shah as a reliable ally, with no concerns about proliferation at this stage.
The cooperation between the two states peaked in the early 1970s. Under US patronage, the Shah established the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and announced plans for a massive nuclear energy program. At the time, he set a goal to build 20 nuclear power reactors by the 1990s, to diversify energy sources and preserve oil exports.
In 1975, the Iranian government signed agreements with France for the construction of reactors and with Germany for the Bushehr nuclear power facility. This was the time when Iran and Israel were aligned, and Tehran faced no opposition from Tel Aviv.
Despite early backing, the Shah’s ambitions raised concerns in the United States. Concerns over the risks of nuclear proliferation were brought up by the Carter administration, especially Iran’s desire to recycle the spent fuel, which could be used for producing plutonium for use in weapons.
The US began advocating for more stringent measures, advising Iran to halt reprocessing and instead rely on external fuel sources.
Before much could be done about that, the Iranian Revolution happened in 1979.
The Shah was overthrown, and the Islamic Republic of Iran was established. Iran went from being an ally to an enemy of the United States and Israel. Consequently, the US halted all nuclear assistance, including reactor projects and fuel supplies.
The Tehran Research Reactor was left operational but under new Iranian management, with no further US support.
However, all this nuclear infrastructure that was encouraged by the US in Iran had dual-use potential. The reactor could produce plutonium, a key material for nuclear weapons, through chemical reprocessing, and the enriched uranium provided a starting point for further enrichment.
From Nuclear Support To Bombing Nuclear Facilities
Iran’s nuclear program stalled during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, as Western suppliers, including the US, withdrew support. The US began viewing Iran’s nuclear activities with suspicion, especially as Iran sought alternative partners.
By the late 1980s, Iran restarted its nuclear program covertly, raising US concerns about potential weapons ambitions. And, by the 1990s, there were reports that Iran had expanded its program with illicit technology from Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan network, building secret enrichment facilities like Natanz.
In August 2002, an opposition group in Iran exposed covert underground nuclear plants at Arak and Natanz that were allegedly used to produce heavy water and enrich uranium, respectively.
Iran said they were meant to be used for civilian nuclear power, but the US questioned why an oil and gas-rich nation required the facilities, claiming they were meant for activities related to nuclear weapons.
In October 2003, nuclear talks commenced, and Iran promised to stop enriching uranium and stop producing and installing critical components at its facilities. However, it resumed its enrichment activities following the election of conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.
In September 2009, former President Barack Obama disclosed that Iran had constructed another covert nuclear facility. He said the Fordow site was buried deep under a mountain, was was safe from attacks.
At the time, Obama claimed that its design was “inconsistent” with a nuclear program that was benign. Analysts at the time said the complex could create enough material for a nuclear weapon in less than a week.
It is almost comical how the subsequent American and Israeli governments have warned that Iran was weeks away from building an atomic bomb, and yet Iran still has none.
Washington had begun imposing sanctions to curb Iran’s nuclear program by the mid-1990s, viewing it as a potential nuclear proliferation threat.
The closest US ally, Israel, made the concern much bigger for the United States by arguing that a nuclear-armed Iran was an existential threat. In reality, however, a nuclear-armed Iran threatened Israel’s ‘qualitative military edge’ in the West Asian region, as the Jewish nation also possessed undeclared nuclear weapons.
The United States had to nip Iran’s nuclear ambitions in the bud.
Thus, what followed under the Obama administration was a lot of back and forth, with the US using both pressure tactics and diplomacy to curb Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions.
Finally, in 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed between Iran and the P5+1 (the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, plus Germany), along with the European Union.
It aimed to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief and ensured Iran’s nuclear program remained peaceful by limiting its capacity to produce nuclear weapons, while simultaneously allowing civilian nuclear activities under strict oversight.
Despite this, Israel continued to criticise and oppose the agreement, asserting that Iran’s compliance was a tactical pause rather than a genuine abandonment of nuclear ambitions.
When Donald Trump was elected the President of the United States, he pulled the US out of the JCPOA agreement despite stated compliance by the Iranian government, and reimposed economic sanctions on the country.
The decision was made after a 20-minute presentation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he demonstrated “conclusive proof of the secret nuclear weapons program that Iran has been hiding for years from the international community in its secret atomic archive.”
The unilateral and arbitrary pullout from the agreement created more distrust between the US and Iran. The Trump administration then adopted the maximum pressure campaign, and a miffed Iran decided to enrich uranium above the permissible limit.
Amid rising tensions in the region in the past year, particularly between Iran (and its proxies in the region) and Israel, the Netanyahu administration intensified its campaign against Iran’s nuclear program.
This campaign received a fresh impetus when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) disclosed in May 2025 that Iran had further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
Then came Israel’s ‘Operation Rising Lion’, followed by the US ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’, aimed at obliterating Iran’s nuclear program.
The extent of damage is yet to be assessed, but experts believe that while the strikes struck a major blow to Iran’s nuclear facilities, they would have been unable to obliterate the nuclear program.
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