Media Talk: Is Iran building a nuclear bomb?

Iran claims its nuclear programme is peaceful. But many countries, led by Israel and the US, fear the Islamic state is aiming for a nuclear bomb.

Despite the world’s attention shifting from the nuclear issue to that of the fifteen British troops held in Iran, the international pressure and the threat of military action are mounting and the chance for a peaceful resolution to the stand-off may be fading.

Our panel discusses what it would take for Iran to build a nuclear bomb and how it would affect the balance of power in one of the most volatile regions on earth.

Dr Frank Barnaby is Nuclear Issues Consultant to the Oxford Research Group. He is a nuclear physicist by training and worked at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Aldermaston between 1951 and 1957.

Mark Fitzpatrick is Senior Fellow for Non-Proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Abbas Edalat is Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics and Head of Theory Section at Imperial College London. In Autumn 2005 he founded the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII).

Majid Tafreshi is a historian and a journalist.

Moderated by Sheila MacVicar – the CBS Correspondent in London.