Abstract

The problem of Iranian nuclear program became one of the most challenging and important issues in Obama's foreign policy. No other problem in U.S. foreign policy of recent years (even Afghanistan) is equally difficult to resolve and is so crucial to the prosperity of the world. The need to halt Tehran from obtaining a nuclear bomb became urgent. The author answers in the article why this matter is so relevant for keeping peace in the Middle East and what three main options Obama has with regard to Iranian nuclear program. The author points that at the beginning of his presidency Obama and his aides hoped that this problem would be solved by the change of regime. As an attempt to oust the current regime in Iran in June 2009 failed, this hopes turned out to be futile. After that Obama had to change his strategy toward Iran. The author argues that after the June 2009 the rhetoric of Obama and his administration became harsher. Currently, the contingency of military action against Iran is again on the table. Moreover, more and more factors supports that this option of resolving the problem will be sooner or later employed in reality.

The Obama administration seems to have very similar, if not completely identical, objectives as for Iran to those of the former administration. President Obama clearly said in one of his numerous TV interviews that “Iran is going to be one of our biggest challenges.” The majority of U.S. policy-makers appears to agree on that matter as well.