WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- An irony in the international struggle to get Iran to stop enriching uranium is that the United States gave Iran its first reactor, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The dome-shaped Tehran Research Reactor was given to the country as part of a U.S. Cold War strategy to help the shah, who was also against the Soviet Union. Compounding the irony in today's stand-off is that the U.S. government also supplied Iran with 10 pounds of weapons-grade uranium needed to power the facility, and which is likely still there, the newspaper said.
While the uranium has undoubtedly been processed, its waste remains radioactive and capable of being used in a weapon, the report said.
Under the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. But the U.N. Security Council now claims Iran has failed to prove it is not building weapons, and has demanded Iran stop enrichment by Aug. 31.
Tuesday, Iran provided a response to an incentives package, whose details have not yet been disclosed, and Security Council member countries were examining it Thursday.
