A Lebanese boy carries a Lebanese flag past portraits of Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei, former Supreme Leader and national founder Ruhollah Khomeini, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP/Getty)

As the deadlines near for Iran and world powers to reach an agreement on the country’s nuclear program — the first, on March 31, for a basic political framework — negotiations are focusing on what kind of program Iran can have. How much uranium and plutonium can it have? How many centrifuges can it use to develop more fuel? How long will restrictions be in place?

There’s one fact, though, that is taken as assumed: Iran very badly wants a nuclear program. So badly that it has been willing to press ahead with the program, secretly as well as overtly, despite Western and UN sanctions that have crippled its economy, and despite repeated US warnings of possible military action.

There’s one fact, though, that is taken as assumed: Iran very badly wants a nuclear program. So badly that it has been willing to press ahead with the program, secretly as well as overtly, despite Western and UN sanctions that have crippled its economy, and despite repeated US warnings of possible military action.

Whatever Iran’s intentions, though, the country’s dedication to nuclear enrichment even at such enormous costs can seem bizarrely counterproductive. So why is Iran so set on its nuclear program? There is no one dominant answer, but rather a few plausible explanations, some of which go against the most common Western perceptions and misperceptions of how Iran works. There is probably some truth to all of them.

Read more at Vox

Categories: Asia, Foreign affairs, Foreign Policy, History, Iran, Israel, Middle East, Military history, Nuclear arms control, Nuclear power, Opinion/Editorial, Politics, Psychohistory, Technology, United States

Tags: Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, nuclear arms control, nuclear weapons, Saddam Hussein, uranium enrichment