Iran is a democracy. I’m sorry, did I miss something, or did they just have ANOTHER Presidential election . . . . ?
Regardless of the all-white (and I think “coloreds” had some vote, isn’t that wonderful) so-called “democracy” in South Africa at the time, because of Apartheid, South Africa was considered by most of the world as an outlaw regime, just as many countries view North Korea and Iran as outlaw regimes.
Actually, when you consider that not only did South Africa, just like present North Korea and Iran, suffered sanctions because of their regimes, but that South Africa was also, unlike Iran and North Korea, banned from many international events such as the Olympics, you CAN directly compare South Africa of the 1980s to present day North Korea and Iran.
As a matter of fact, I would submit in many ways South Africa was even MORE isolated from the rest of the world in the 1980s than Iran or North Korea are today for the reason above.
Two examples: We in Australia have eschewed them despite having both technical and financial capacity should we so choose, and notoriously Libya has now given them up.
Libiya never had the capability, they asked Pakistan and were told to…
And Australia definatly does not have the infrastructure to make them, that deficiency can be rectified true, but Australia never really considered it.
The only country that has positioned itself to aquire nukes quickly if needed is Japan.
Brazil has the capability to go nuclear, and (to a lesser extent) Argentna. The fact that these two regional powers chose not to develop nuclear weapons shows that there are staggering costs involved-and the governments of these two countries decided it just wasn’t worth it.
Iran’s government isnt a traditional nor free democracy. They have a supreme ruler who appoints the most powerful positions in government and has zero accountability. Then there are the governing bodies which can, and do, eliminate anyone who they dont like from being able to run for office. Its not a democracy when you can tell all the reformers that they dont qualify for office. Imagine if all the Republicans were able to stop all the Democrats from running.
Not to mention violent suppression of protesters after vote irregularities were found. Iran’s government is best described as a constitutional Theocracy, not a western-style democracy.
It seems like they still have some interest in Brazil.
I don’t think the costs are that prohibitively expensive. Sweden has had the capability and means to developer nuclear weapons since the middle of the 50’s, but the program was politically shut down when the NPT was signed in '68. Israel has nukes with an economy 10 times smaller than Brazil.
Maybe you meant costs in a wider sense, and not just the program’s cost in itself, including political repercussions and the costs thereof?
i know im late to the party like most South Africans are but i am a coloured man and well the first time we had a say in what goes on in the government was during 1994 elections when we voted nelson Mandela as out first black president…and now on to the topic at hand from what i under stand South Africa has a nuclear arsenal and according to them its for protection ( defense not for offense ) as the world developed so did we and we have to find a way to protect out selves from the super powers out there but don’t get me wrong im not saying it give us pull to flaunt it around and intimidate the little guys within Africa or even the world for that matter we are not as string military wise to invade or even defend from an invasion the nuclear weapons that we have are there basically there for show to say we have to tech to be a first rate country but we not quiet there yet… we still need help in a lot of other areas such as education and crime reduction and all the infrastructural development those are some of our main concerns well that and the current assassinations of our governmental officials…
From my scant knowledge, the French nuclear development was practically binational with Israel; the Israelis had a method to produce weapons-grade material at an unprecedented rate.
Something else about some famous “flash” off SA that was/is taken to be an Israeli test.
Sorry, but no. At its worst South Africa was still a Western country. A racially divided and brutally racially oppressive one, but Western none the less. North Korea & Iran are literally a different world. There are things which are not even criminalized in the West which are still punishable by death in those parts of the Arab & Asian world. It would be like saying that the American South pre-1970s was worse than Iran or DPRK, which is ridiculous. Lesser of three evils by a long shot…
