Pakistan has often betrayed the West. But the US cannot abandon it

Advertisement In 1957, as part of the Atoms for Peace programme, President Dwight D Eisenhower greenlit the supply of US nuclear technology to Iran under the aegis of a civil nuclear agreement. In 1967, a five-megawatt research reactor granted by the US to Iran went critical, fuelled by highly enriched — at 93 per cent, weapons grade — uranium. But the Shah had more ambitious objectives, and by the 1970s, plans were underway for a massive expansion of the nuclear power programme. The Shah was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq, invaded Iran…