In Brief Archive

Iran In Brief

Iran’s Nuclear Setbacks: A key for U.S. diplomacy

Iran’s Nuclear Setbacks: A key for U.S. diplomacy photo

January 20, 2011

by David Albright and Andrea Stricker

Iran’s nuclear program is suffering mounting setbacks, which in turn will provide more time for diplomacy and reduce the imminence of military strikes.  The problems fall into three broad categories :

  • increased difficulty of obtaining essential parts on the international market,

    •  

  • trouble operating large numbers of centrifuges,

    •  

  • and apparent covert actions by foreign intelligence agencies.

    • In the longer term, thwarting Iran’s growing options to develop a nuclear weapon remains a major challenge. If Iran built a secret site using more advanced centrifuges, it could be ready to build a bomb as soon as 2012 or 2013.

    To read more of this article, which first appeared on the Author Talk website of The Iran Primer, click here.

    This article also appeared on the website of PBS Frontline’s Tehran Bureau here.

    Read ISIS’s chapter on Iran’s Nuclear History in The Iran Primer, a new book published by the United States Institute of Peace, here.

    email us twitter Share on Facebook