Iran Says It's Not Seeking Nuclear Weapons After Tit-For-Tat Strikes With Israel

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

On Monday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry reaffirmed that Tehran is not seeking a nuclear bomb and that weapons have no place in Iran’s nuclear doctrine.

"Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear program only serves peaceful purposes. Nuclear weapons have no place in our nuclear doctrine," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani.

Kanaani’s comments came after an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general suggested Iran could change its nuclear doctrine if Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Any decision to build nuclear weapons would have to be made by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who issued a fatwa in 2003 forbidding the production and use of any weapon of mass destruction. The Islamic Republic’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, also prohibited the creation of a WMD program.

The fact that Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon was recently reaffirmed by the US’s annual "threat assessment" and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities necessary to produce a testable nuclear device," the threat assessment says.

Iran is enriching some uranium at 60%, which is the highest level it has ever attempted but is still lower than the 90% needed for weapons-grade.

Iran has increased uranium enrichment since the US withdrew from the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, in 2018 and in response to Israeli covert attacks on its civilian nuclear program.

"Iran uses its nuclear program to build negotiating leverage and respond to perceived international pressure. Tehran said it would restore JCPOA limits if the United States fulfilled its JCPOA commitments and the IAEA closed its outstanding safeguards investigations," the threat assessment reads.