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n Greek mythology, Prometheus is best known for stealing fire from the gods and handing it over to the humans. In other words, he taught the use of fire to humans. For revealing the secret, Prometheus was eternally tied to a huge rock where vultures would prey on his body. Humans have since been playing with fire, and proliferating its use. The Doomsday Clock, conceived and placed in 1947, at a time when the atomic age had only just started, has an interesting history. In 2025, it stands at 89 seconds to midnight, symbolising the closest in its 78 years it has ever been to midnight— the imminence of catastrophe.
Robert J Oppenheimer, the chief scientist for the Manhattan Project of the US, would later say about the first ever nuclear explosion that: “We knew the world would not be the same.” He would recall a line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita: “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” The race for developing nuclear weapons was on even before that. It continued after its catastrophic use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The global fear about the spread of nuclear weapons gave birth to the Non-Proliferation Treaty since a dangerous nuclear arms race was a defining feature of the Cold War era.
By the end of 1960s, four more countries—the UK, France, China and the USSR—had developed nuclear weapons. Since more and more countries were entering this club, there was no global agreement to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, significantly reduce the nuclear stockpile and promote peaceful uses of nuclear energy under standardised safeguards. The United Nations took an initiative and negotiations started under the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament. This treaty was drafted mainly by the US, the Soviet Union and the UK and was enforced in 1970.
The NPT signatory non-nuclear-weapon states are bound not to strive to acquire nuclear weapons; the nuclear states agree not to help others acquire them. Another important part of this treaty is disarmament. All states commit to pursuing nuclear disarmament in good faith. Nonetheless, countries are allowed to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes such as power generation, medicine and research under the aegis of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Currently, the NPT is the most widely adopted arms control mechanism with 191 countries as its signatories. India, Pakistan and Israel never signed the treaty. Though the NPT is criticised for being ineffective and unable to control powerful countries from making deadlier weapons and favouring nuclear haves over have-nots, it is also credited with slowing down the spread of nuclear weapons. However, controversies have shadowed the NPT due to North Korea’s and Iran’s lack of commitment to the agreements. Both North Korea and Iran see this treaty as a tool in the hands of the Western powers that use it to frustrate their genuine concerns and apprehensions.
North Korea signed the treaty in December 1985 but later withdrew from it in 2003 becoming the first, and so far, the only nation to do so. It conducted six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017 confirming its nuclear weapons capability by building warheads as well as long range missiles. Iran signed this treaty in 1968 and has always claimed that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. However, the US and Israel have continued accusing it of secretly working towards building nuclear weapons. In 2015, Iran struck a deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and agreed to limit its nuclear programme. The motivation behind this act was to acquire some relief from economic sanctions.
Iran, under the JCPOA, reaffirmed its commitments to the NPT and accepted unprecedented transparency measures and minute monitoring by the IAEA, called the Additional Protocol. Under President Trump, the US unilaterally withdrew from the treaty in 2018. Soon afterwards, it started accusing Iran of enriching uranium beyond the agreed levels and of reducing access to the IAEA. US re-imposed severe sanctions on Iran. Iran initially stayed in the deal and repeatedly requested other signatories—the European Union, China and Russia—to compensate for US withdrawal. It, however, did not receive any assurance.
Thereafter, Iran began withdrawing from its JCPOA commitments by increasing uranium enrichment levels beyond 3.67 percent, building uranium stockpiles beyond 300 kg, resuming enrichment at Fordow and stopping compliance with the Additional Protocol in 2021. The IAEA and Iran clashed over alleged undeclared nuclear material at undeclared sites like Turquzabad, Marivan and Varamin. Iran also refused to reinstall IAEA cameras at some nuclear facilities. Despite these problems, Iran did not withdraw from the NPT.
A diplomatic stalemate prevailed during 2022-2023 during which the IAEA reported that Iran had highly enriched uranium that, if enriched further, could be used to produce nuclear weapons. Iran continued to insist that its programme was for peaceful purposes, citing various clauses of the NPT that granted it the right to do so. The ambiguity and tensions between the IAEA and Iran continued during 2024-2025. Iran was, time and again, accused of expanding its nuclear enrichment. The hawkish behaviour of the US and Israel and its backing by the European Union has been clearly discriminatory.
The writer heads the History Department at University of Sargodha. He has worked as a research fellow at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He can be reached at abrar.zahoorhotmail.com His X handle: AbrarZahoor1