Calls Grow Inside Iran to Build Nuclear Weapons: Clerics and Lawmakers Urge a Bomb and Withdrawal From the Non-Proliferation Treaty

Tehran — A growing chorus of Iranian officials, lawmakers and influential clerics is openly calling for the country to build nuclear weapons, The New York Times reported on November 4. The increasingly vocal movement has grown since the United States and Israel went to war with Iran, with hard-liners arguing that acquiring nuclear weapons may be necessary to deter future military attacks; a position once confined to the fringe is entering mainstream debate.

In the western city of Kuhdasht, Friday prayer leader Ali Sepahvand called last week for Iran to be equipped with nuclear weapons to confront the United States, as worshippers chanted that nuclear deterrence was Iran's inalienable right. In Tehran, Friday prayer leader Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari used his sermon to describe changing the country's nuclear doctrine as a national demand.

Lawmakers have gone further. Mahmoud Nabavian wrote that after paying the price of war and sanctions, it was time to walk away from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and change the country's nuclear doctrine. Another lawmaker, Abolfazl Aboutorabi, called outright for developing an atomic bomb. Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said 10 proposals to withdraw from the treaty had been registered in parliament. The hard-line Paydari Front has pressed parliament to withdraw, arguing that membership failed to protect Iran from American and Israeli attacks.

For decades, Iranian officials publicly adhered to a fatwa — a religious edict — issued by the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei prohibiting the development and use of nuclear weapons. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi conceded in March that a fatwa depends on the jurist who issues it, a remark read as leaving room for change.

Iran's government has not formally announced any decision to pursue nuclear weapons. President Masoud Pezeshkian still denies that Tehran wants an arsenal. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said on state television that leaders were discussing whether to retain the prewar nuclear doctrine if another war breaks out, adding that no new decision has been made yet.

The debate is heating up as Iran sends Washington a nuclear proposal via Qatar and President Trump says he will soon decide whether to resume all-out strikes. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes. (Source: The New York Times)

Related:

Follow-Up: Iran Sends Nuclear Proposal to the U.S. via Qatar, Tying Any Talks to Seven Demands

Trump Meets National Security Team on Iran: Says He Will Soon Decide Whether to Resume All-Out War

Source: The New York Times

Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 图：从恰姆兰高速公路望向德黑兰米拉德塔（资料图）。照片：Milad Mosapoor，CC BY，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: View toward Milad Tower in Tehran from the Chamran Expressway (file photo). Photo by Milad Mosapoor, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons.

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