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.
As I’ve said many times, Iran has no need for and no use case for nukes. Nukes are only useful if 1) you have enough to be a credible threat of destroying your enemies, and 2) you have the delivery systems.
Iran knows that threatening to use nukes against Israel would involve a nuclear response from the US and Iran has repeatedly said they know that and would not bother trying to outproduce the US arsenal of nukes. So Iran has no credible use case for nukes and is relying on their massive missile and drone arsenal of thousands of missiles as their deterrent.
I am not a fan of the Iranian theocracy. I have no particular liking of theocracies in general. Fatwa’s to me seems just about the furthest thing anyone should adhere to. But here’s one I whish every nation on this planet would. Not because it is a fatwa but because it is the only sane thing for the duration we have no other planets to move to.
Atom bombs, aircraft carriers and tanks are yesterday’s cash cows.
My guess is that the 60% enriched U235 is made for export. It is useful for nuclear-powered ships and small research reactors.
Their nuclear doctrine will really have to change if they continue pushing their warmongering “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” message with their support for all the anti West proxies in the region.
Is that the only way to take out Iran because the west can’t do it conventionally?
That’s true, they don’t seek it, because they bought few of them from North Korea or Pakistan already made, just in case Israel goes mental.
It sounds like a theory and you are not even sure which country allegedly sold and the exact number of sold nukes?
Do you know the price of one single nuclear bomb and how powerful it can be?
You tell me?