a rightly timed pause

U.S. - Iran Nuclear Cooperation

April 22, 1975

The President has decided that in negotiating an Agreement on Cooperation in the Civil Uses of Atomic Energy with the Government of Iran, the U.S. shall:

• Permit U.S. material to be fabricated into fuel in Iran for use in its own reactors and for pass-through to third countries with whom we have Agreements.

• Agree to set the fuel ceiling at a level reflecting the approximate number of nuclear reactors planned for purchase from U.S. suppliers.

• … inform the Government of Iran that we shall be prepared to provide our approval for reprocessing of U.S. material in a multinational plant in Iran if the country supplying the reprocessing technology or equipment is a full and active participant in the plan.

Signed by Henry Kissinger.

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Incidentally, the sale of nuclear energy equipment to Iran was projected to bring U.S. corporations more than $6 billion in revenue.

“The Ford administration — in which Dick Cheney succeeded Donald Rumsfeld as chief of staff and Paul Wolfowitz was responsible for nonproliferation issues at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency — continued intense efforts to supply Iran with U.S. nuclear technology until President Jimmy Carter succeeded Ford in 1977.

Charles Naas, who was deputy U.S. ambassador to Iran in the 1970s, said proliferation was high in the minds of technical experts, “but the nuclear deal was attractive in terms of commerce, and the relationship as a whole was very important.”