Congressional Digest

Excerpt

Iran’s nuclear program dates back to the 1950s, when the shah was in power and the United States and Iran were on friendly terms. Under the Atoms for Peace program, announced by President Dwight Eisenhower, the two countries agreed to share nuclear materials and technologies for peaceful purposes. Iran’s nuclear program developed quickly, but was forestalled in 1979 by the Iranian Islamic revolution, when most international nuclear cooperation with Iran was cut off, and in the 1980s by the Iran–Iraq war.

In 2003, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began conducting inspections of Iran’s nucle…