DUBAI: An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader stated that Iran will alter its nuclear doctrine if Israel poses a threat to the country. This is the most recent statement made by an Iranian official raising doubts about what Tehran claims to be its peaceful nuclear program.
Tehran has maintained that it has no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons. Western governments believe it plans to use nuclear technology to develop a bomb; sanctions have resulted from a protracted debate over its nuclear program.
A top Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander also stated that Israeli threats could force Iran to revise its nuclear doctrine in April, during a tense standoff with Israel, which is widely thought to possess nuclear weapons.
Iran’s Student News Network on Thursday quoted Kamal Kharrazi, an advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as stating, “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.”
The same advisor claimed in 2022 that Iran had not yet made up its mind to construct a nuclear weapon, but it was theoretically capable of producing one. Early in the new millennium, Khamenei, who holds the ultimate say over Tehran’s nuclear program, issued a fatwa, or religious decree, prohibiting the creation of nuclear weapons.
In 2019, he restated his statement that constructing and accumulating nuclear weapons was “wrong and using it is haram,” or prohibited by religion. However, the intelligence minister of Iran at the time stated in 2021 that Western pressure might force Tehran to pursue nuclear weapons.
Using a phrase used by Iranian officials to refer to Israel, Kharrazi stated in his most recent remarks, “In the case of an attack on our nuclear facilities by the Zionist regime, our deterrence will change.”
Iran and Israel have long been bitter rivals, but in April, after Tehran launched around 300 missiles and drones into Israel in retribution for what it believed to be an Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Damascus, what had been for decades a shadow war broke out in the open. Israel attacked Iranian territory in retaliation.
While weapons-grade uranium is enhanced to roughly 90% purity, Iran is enriching uranium to as high as 60% purity. An official IAEA measurement states that the current stock of nuclear material could produce two nuclear bombs if it were further enriched.
ship crew released
Seven of the 25 crew members of a Portuguese-flagged ship that was apprehended in the Gulf on April 13 were released by Iran on Thursday, according to Portugal’s foreign ministry. The government released a statement saying that five Indians, a Filipino, and an Estonian from the MSC Aries “have been freed today.” There was already another Indian crew member freed.
Portugal applauded the move but insisted on the “immediate release” of the MSC Aries, which had been detained amid escalating hostilities between Iran and Israel, and the other 17 crew members.
Parallel to Iranian forces conducting a widespread drone strike against Israel, Iran claimed the captured container ship had connections to Israel.
