Iran are tryng too making nuclear weapons

I will argue that the evidence suggests Iran is not actively pursuing nuclear weapons. First I will make the case that purported evidence that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons is very weak. Then I will argue why the good evidence we have leads to the conclusion that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons. Because this debate relies more on facts than many debate topics, I will be commenting extensively on the sources of my opponent. Consequently, I will use letters for my own sources to keep things clearer.There are three things, I do not dispute. First, Iran has a nuclear program. I only dispute that they are trying (present tense) to develop nuclear weapons. Second, Israel is trying to bait the U.S. into strikes against Iran. Their motivation really doesn't make sense to me -- I would have thought keeping a strong Shiite power as a counterpoint to the Sunnis on Israel's borders would be to their advantage. But, for whatever reasons, it seems to be happening. Third, there is an intense propaganda campaign in the U.S. to convince its people to be afraid of Iran, possibly to the point of manufacturing support for military operations. This is nothing new. Iran was really scary last presidential election. Remember McCain and his "bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran" bit[a]? Then America stopped caring for three years and now it's scary again. For whatever reason, Republicans think they have a better chance of wining presidential elections if the topic is foreign policy.Rebuttal to Evidence of a Nuclear Weapons ProgramI. Iran's current program, their proclamationsMy opponent cites two sources for this week's announcement from Iran that they could now run their reactor on low enriched uranium (LEU) that was refined in Iran[1,2]. LEU cannot be used in nuclear weapons, but highly enriched uranium HEU can[b,c]. My opponent calls this development a " major advances in their nuclear WEAPONS" (emphasis in the original). However, neither source says that this development is related to weapons. Source 2 doesn't mention weapons at all, and source 1 just mentions as a side note "Washington and its allies say [Iran's program] is aimed at producing a nuclear weapon." No evidence is presented to support this. My opponent also points out that Iran claims the reactor is designed for energy and medical research[3]. He provides no evidence to counter this claim.One might also ask, why it was necessary for Iran to produce it's own fuel. Iran had previously signed a fuel swap deal with Turkey. Under the deal, Turkey would supply (non weapon's grade [c]) LEU to Iran and Iran would return the spent fuel to Turkey to prevent diversion. The U.S. killed the deal by pressuring Turkey to pull out[e]. So, now, Iran has to make its own fuel.II. Israel's claimsMy opponent notes that because Peres says Iran is "getting closer to having nuclear weapons" it must be true. He says Israel must have some secret agents or something. Yet, Israel has bombed nuclear weapons facilities in Iraq[f] and Syria[g] but not Iran. Again no evidence for an Iranian weapons program is presented.III. EvidenceIn this section my opponent misconstrues six sources to make it look as if they show Iran is developing a bomb, when in fact they do not. [5] actually says "Iran has sought access to the technology that would give it the option to build a nuclear bomb." That is, Iran is trying to develop nuclear power. Nuclear power technology, might one day be used to build a bomb, hypothetically. [6] There is similar misdirection here. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) says in the article "We assess Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons." "Keeping open the option" does not mean "is trying to develop" and actually implies that they are not actively developing weapons. [7,8] Reporters speculate on what an upcoming AIEA report will say. You can read the actual report. It's available at [h]. I'll discuss it further below. Regarding [9] my opponent says "The UN, is trying to ensure the Nuclear program is peaceful." This is true. He then infers that it is not peaceful, a conclusion that doesn't follow and isn't in the source. [10] My opponent confuses "activities relevant to the development" with "development." Evidence Iran is not trying to develop nuclear weapons1. No direct claimsUS intelligence services, the UN, and the IAEA do not claim Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons (although U.S. politicians do). If there was convincing evidence of a weapons program, these groups would be singing from the hilltops. Instead, we get carefully worded statements that give the impression that Iran is developing nuclear weapons without actually claiming to have evidence of it. There are several examples of this that I would cite from my opponents sources. The DNI says Iran is "Keeping the option open"[6]. The IAEA says Iran's activities are "relevant" to nuclear weapons. Nobody (with credible evidence) is saying "Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons." For this reason alone, the proposition should fail.2. Iran is open about its nuclear activities cooperating with the international communityIran is attempting to cooperate with the international community, at least as far as the U.S. will allow it. We have already seen how the U.S. prevents Iran from having a nuclear program that isn't scary[e]. Iran allows the IAEA to implement non-proliferation safeguards. If you read the actual IAEA report[h] you can see the level of cooperation that still exists. Here are some quotes from that report: "Under the Safeguards Agreement Iran has disclosed to the Agency 15 facilities ... the Agency continues to implement safeguards at these facilities." On the enrichment facilities: "The Agency has concluded that the facility has operated as declared by Iran." "The Agency is unable to provide credible assurance ... and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities." It is that last statement that really sums up the findings. The AIEA cannot prove the negative. This is quite far from evidence of a weapons program.Also, Iran is open about its nuclear program. The way we know about the recent enrichment breakthrough is that Iran made a public announcement[1,2]. When North Korea and Pakistan developed nuclear weapons, they had very secret programs. Iran's program is out in the open. This openness, which would almost certainly be more open without U.S. interference suggests that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful.3. It is not in Iran's strategic interest to develop nuclear weapons. Currently, there is only one country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons: Israel[i]. Israel depends heavily on support of the United States for defense, and the US's UN security council veto. Israel knows that the US population will not support it if it uses nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear power. Iran is safer from Israeli nuclear weapons if Iran does not have nuclear weapons itself. Also, Sunni Saudi Arabia has stated that it will develop nuclear weapons if Iran does. Thus it is contrary to Iran's interest to develop nuclear weapons.For these and the forgoing reasons, one can conclude that Iran is not currently trying to produce nuclear weapons.References[a] video http://www.youtube.com...[b] http://www.nrc.gov...[c] http://www.fas.org...[d] http://news.bbc.co.uk...[e] http://www.guardian.co.uk...[f] http://news.bbc.co.uk...[g] http://www.reuters.com...[h] http://www.iaea.org...[i] http://www.fas.org...[j] http://www.foxnews.com...