ABSTRACT
Iran’s 1957 nuclear agreement with the United States soon found broader context within the Baghdad Pact, a loose alliance modeled after NATO and concluded – on U.S. military and economic aid promises – between Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, and Great Britain in 1955 to fend off Soviet expansionism and infi ltration into the Middle East. As the United States and Great Britain deemed Pact membership an appropriate platform to get their regional allies initiated in the Atoms for Peace Program, on March 31, 1957 Iraq’s King Feisal II formally inaugurated the Baghdad Pact Nuclear Training Centre in Baghdad’s Salchiyah district. The Center was conceived to provide training in “nuclear physics, radiochemistry, electronics, medical applications, and agriculture” to the scientifi c community of the Pact member states and other countries in the Middle East. 1
On the more ambitious prospects of the power-generation applications of nuclear power in the Middle East, the general assessment at the time was that
The application of nuclear power will not be worthwhile in Iraq and Turkey in the foreseeable future, owing to the abundant supply of oil and hydro power. Iran and Pakistan are, however, interested in the potentialities of nuclear power units of medium output for some areas, and the Centre will help by advice to promote this development.
