Tehran has always said it had no plans to obtain nuclear
weapons. Western governments suspect that it wants nuclear
technology to build a bomb; its nuclear program has been at the
centre of a long-running dispute that has led to sanctions.
In April, in the middle of a tense standoff with Israel, which
is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, a senior Iranian
Revolutionary Guards commander also said Israeli threats could
prompt Iran to change its nuclear doctrine.
"We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb but should Iran's
existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change
our military doctrine," Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was reported as saying by Iran's
Student News Network on Thursday.
In 2022, the same adviser said Iran was technically capable of
making a nuclear bomb but had not yet decided whether to build
one.
Khamenei, who has the final say in Tehran's nuclear program,
banned the development of nuclear weapons in a fatwa, or
religious edict, in the early 2000s.
He reiterated that in 2019, saying that building and stockpiling
nuclear bombs was "wrong and using it is haram", or religiously
forbidden.
But Iran's then-intelligence minister said in 2021 that Western
pressure could push Tehran towards nuclear weapons.
In his latest comments, Kharrazi said: "In the case of an attack
on our nuclear facilities by the Zionist regime, our deterrence
will change," using a term Iranian official use to refer to
Israel.
Iran and Israel have long been arch enemies, but what was for
decades a shadow war erupted into open confrontation in April,
when Tehran launched about 300 missiles and drones against
Israel in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike on its
embassy compound in Damascus.
In response, Israel launched an attack on Iranian territory.
Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, whereas weapons
grade uranium is enriched to about 90%. If the current nuclear
material on hand were enriched further, it would suffice for two
nuclear weapons, according to an official IAEA yardstick.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Michael Georgy and
Gerry Doyle)
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