NEW YORK, April 25. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump’s statements that Washington is fighting to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons are reminiscent of the dystopian works of British writer George Orwell, US economist and director of Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, said.

"Trump’s main argument has been in the last months - ‘I will stop them from having a nuclear weapon.’ Of course, anyone that knows the history of this knows that this is Orwell to the nth power. By that, I mean such bizarre propaganda, you don't quite even know where to start. The reason is that the Iranians have not pursued a nuclear weapon. Our own intelligence agencies have said that repeatedly," the expert told US journalist Tucker Carlson.

Iran began developing its nuclear program in the 1950s during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, with support from the United States. In 1958, the country became a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency. In 1968, it signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and in 1970, it ratified it. After the overthrow of the Shah’s regime in 1979 and the proclamation of the Islamic Republic, the nuclear program was halted until the authorities resumed the development of nuclear technology in the late 1980s. Since 2003, a fatwa (religious edict) issued by the country’s former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been in effect in Iran, prohibiting the development of nuclear weapons.