Dances with wolves: Russia, Iran and the nuclear issue

Abstract

The Iran-Iraq War, combined with escalating tension with the United States, paved the way in Iranian security circles to new ideas on obtaining nuclear weapons to defend Iran in a hostile regional and international environment. Whether for peaceful nuclear purposes or for producing nuclear weapons, there was a desperate need for external support to pursue a nuclear program. Russian experts spent an initial three months at the site planning how to finish the nuclear plant and placing new reactors in it.3 Under this deal, Russia agreed to educate 20 to 30 Iranian experts in nuclear science at Russian institutes and promised to provide technological and scientific assistance and supply three light-water reactors (1000 MW each) to the nuclear plant.