Razi University

   Over the past four decades, Iran’s nuclear program has not only persisted—despite crippling sanctions, repeated military threats, and unprecedented diplomatic pressure—but has even expanded at various junctures. Drawing on Scott Sagan’s tripartite model and placing particular emphasis on the normative model, this study seeks to explain the Islamic Republic of Iran’s insistence on maintaining and developing its nuclear program. The central research question asks: what drives the Islamic Republic of Iran’s insistence on preserving and advancing the program in the face of international sanctions and even the threat of military aggression by the United States and Israel? The study hypothesizes that, alongside security and bureaucratic considerations, the primary reason for this insistence lies in the program’s symbolic and identity-related functions, which have transformed it into a value that cannot be relinquished.