Akbar Etemad (
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
: اکبر اعتماد) was the president of the
Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) is the main Iranian government agency responsible for operating nuclear power, nuclear energy and nuclear fuel cycle installations in Iran. AEOI is the primary organization responsible for nuclear tech ...
from 1974 to 1978.
He is popularly called the father of
Iran's nuclear program
The nuclear program of Iran is an ongoing scientific effort by Iran to research nuclear technology that can be used to make nuclear weapons. Iran has several research sites, two uranium mines, a research reactor, and uranium processing facili ...
.
After the 1979 Iranian revolution, he left Iran and established office in Paris and worked there as a nuclear energy consultant. As of 2009, he was the co-chair of Iranians for Peace.
[
]
Early life and career
Etemad was born on February 3, 1930, in Hamadan. He got a diploma in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
from Lausanne University
The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switze ...
in 1957. He received an M.Sc. in 1958 and a Ph.D. in reactor physics from Lausanne University in 1963. He worked for Brown-Boveri ( Brown, Boveri & Cie.) in Switzerland as a research engineer for one and a half years. He also worked for the Swiss Federal Institute for Reactor Research as the chief of its nuclear shielding group for five and a half years. He returned to Iran in 1965. In 1968 he joined the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Iran as Deputy minister for research. In 1973 he was appointed chancellor of the French language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
Bu Ali Sina University. In a meeting with the prime minister of Iran Amir Abbas Hoveida, Etemad proposed that an independent national organization for scientific research needed to be established. Hoveida approved the proposal and Etemad was made the head of Iran's Institute for Planning and Research in Science. On April 10, 1974, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Iran and the first president of its atomic energy organization.[ After becoming the president he ensured that all decision-making powers were given to him, right from the budget to the selection of staff. The AEOI did not have to report its expenditure to the government instead a single report was submitted to the treasury at the end of every year.
The Shah had set the target of producing 23,000 Megawatts of electrical energy from nuclear sources within the next twenty years. In July 1974, a nuclear deal worth US$130 million was signed between Iran and United States. He had once asked the Shah if he wanted to build a nuclear bomb, to which the Shah replied that doing so would only isolate Iran from the rest of the world. In October 1975, he refused that Iran had signed a uranium deal worth US$7 million with South Africa. After he was accused of mismanagement and embezzlement in October 1978, he resigned from the post of the president of the Atomic Energy Organization.] After the 1979 Iranian revolution that led to the formation of a new government however, Etemad left Iran for Paris. The new leaders asked him to return but he refused.[ During the ]Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
, Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
attempted to persuade him to work for Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
but he refused saying "'as long as you are fighting my people I wouldn't come to Iraq. You are my enemy".[
]
Interview by Maziar Bahari
In September 2008, the transcript of his interview conducted by Maziar Bahari was published in the New Statesman entitled "The Shah's plan was to build bombs."[ Maziar Bahari wrote that Etemad had confided in him that the ]Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
, title = Shahanshah Aryamehr Bozorg Arteshtaran
, image = File:Shah_fullsize.jpg
, caption = Shah in 1973
, succession = Shah of Iran
, reign = 16 September 1941 – 11 February 1979
, coronation = 26 October ...
, the Shah of Iran intended to make nuclear weapons with Iran's civilian nuclear program.
After the interview was published, Mr. Etemad wrote a letter to the New Statesman which appeared in the print edition of the Dec 1, 2008 issue of the magazine, in which he vociferously denied the claim attributed to him by Maziar Bahari:
The title "The Shah
Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...
's plan was to build bombs" is misleading. I told Mr Bahari that I had to know what the Shah had in mind regarding the nature of the nuclear programme. I also said that during a long discussion, the Shah
Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...
told me that Iran did not need nuclear weapons, because our strong conventional forces would guarantee our security and national interests.
See also
* Atomic Energy Organization of Iran
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) is the main Iranian government agency responsible for operating nuclear energy and nuclear fuel cycle installations in Iran. AEOI is the primary organization responsible for nuclear technology researc ...
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Interview on Vimeo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Etemad, Akbar
1930 births
University of Lausanne alumni
Living people
People from Hamadan
Presidents of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran
Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in France
20th-century Iranian engineers
Iranian electrical engineers