Iran's nuclear program: can we stop it?

Through the last three administrations, Iran’s infant nuclear programs has been a topic of foreign policy. Clinton took a hard stance against the idea of Iran having a nuclear energy program in the 1990’s. Bush made clear his view of the Iranian government as illegitimate and didn’t support a nuclear program in Iran. Obama, however has taken a different platform; allowing for the idea of highly monitored, options for nuclear energy, not weaponry. Recently, the US and Iran have held the most intimate and highest-ranking meetings in years. Serious negotiations are taking place between the United States and Iran regarding the prospect of nuclear power. The negotiation is centered around the idea of aiming to keep Iran’s low-enriched nuclear fuel below the threshold required to make a nuclear weapon. The proposal offers for uranium to be shipped to Russia to have it enriched further, but this uranium would be monitored. On October 29, 2009, Iran asked the International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN-based watchdog organization for amendments to the proposal. The original proposal was a gleam of hope and improvement in regards to Iranian cooperation and these amendments signal a setback in negotiation attempts.
President Obama is holding firm to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a 1968 treaty with the aim of limiting the expansion of the use of nuclear weapons. Iran has violated the NPT’s monitoring regime numerous times by building secret nuclear facilities. To enforce adherence to the NPT, Obama has been divulging long-secret information to other Western nations. In the end of October 2009, Obama released information regarding a secret uranium enrichment facility, the most recent Iranian violation of the NPT. Obama’s transparency and openness with the international community is a signal of his efforts to end Iran’s secret nuclear enrichment program. Unlike his predecessors, Obama offers his recognition of the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which puts him in a better position to negotiate with the Iranian government than the past two administrations.
However, Obama’s allegiance to the NPT may not be enough to control Iran’s nuclear program. The idea of Iran possessing nuclear weaponry presents a unique threat to the US and the rest of the world. Emanuele Ottolenghi, author of “Under a Mushroom Cloud: Europe, Iran, and the Bomb” writes “a country that treats its citizens brutally and threatens its neighbors cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons”. To limit this threat, the US should pursue a stronger hold on Iran. Imposing sanctions on international trade with Iran has the potential to be an effective bargaining tool. Whether or not this is within Obama’s powers is questionable. Senator Joseph Lieberman and a bipartisan coalition of senators have proposed legislation granting President Obama the authority to impose such sanctions. Obama would have the capability to sanction companies involved in brokering, shipping, or inuring the sale of gasoline or other refined petroleum products to Iran.
Furthermore, the efforts to grasp hold of Iran’s nuclear program needs to be a global effort. Current European trade of technology and weaponry needs to stop if the US and other western nations are going to halt Iran’s growing nuclear prospects.
Iran’s resistance and amendments to proposals as well as the existence of secret uranium enrichment facilities despite the NPT could signal possible American failure of stopping Iranian nuclear programs. Without international sanctions and firmer adherence to the NPT, the prospect of Iran acquiring nuclear weaponry is very real.