In October 2003 the Islamic Republic of Iran admitted that it had secretly been producing highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium. This revelation shocked the world, as did Iran’s further confession that it had been pursuing a clandestine nuclear program for nearly two decades. Throughout 2004, the UN and leading European nations tried to persuade Tehran to abandon its efforts to gain a nuclear weapons capability. As Washington and Tel Aviv looked on, however, the larger question became how to verify the good faith of an avowedly hostile nation, and if all else failed, how to pre-empt the threat by force. In Iran’s Nuclear Option: Tehran’s Quest for the Atom Bomb, Al J. Venter lays out in meticulous detail the mullah regime’s silent march toward acquiring nuclear weapons. He first describes the nature of the Iranian regime, which evolved from the Islamic revolution of 1979. He then turns to the mechanics of Iran’s nuclear program, its acquisitions through the international black market, and the technological problems it has steadily overcome. He also examines Iran’s missile program, developed with the help of North Korea, its unconventional weapons, and Tehran’s record of fostering terrorism through the auspices of its fanatic Pasdaran military arm. Of special interest in this book is a rare look at a rogue nuclear weapons program that once succeeded. In tracing the development of atomic weapons in his native South Africa, the author provides a grim case example of what the Iranian regime is capable of achieving, as well as a glimpse of the new diaspora of nuclear scientists flung off by the end of Apartheid. In this new millennium to date, the West has repeatedly been surprised, both tactically and strategically, byu developments rising from within the world of Islam. In this book the facts are laid out in stark detail, along with their politico-historical context, and an analysis of the ambitions the Islamic Republic of Iran holds for the future. Drawing on numerous expert sources as well as his own wealth of firsthand experience, Al J. Venter provides us with a clear warning about the crisis that lies just beyond the current horizon in the Middle East. Filled with scholarship, insight, and a cold-eyed view of developing events, Iran’s Nuclear Option is essential reading for the public and Western policymakers alike.
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