IRGC commander had said country would ‘review’ doctrine if Israel attacked, and imam had urged Khamanei to lift proscription in retaliation for strike against Guard Corps generals
Nuclear weapons have no place in Iran’s nuclear doctrine, the country’s foreign ministry said on Monday, days after an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander warned that Tehran might change its nuclear policy if pressured by Israeli threats.
“Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear program serves only peaceful purposes. Nuclear weapons have no place in our nuclear doctrine,” ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said during a press conference in Tehran.
Following a spike in tensions with Israel, the IRGC commander in charge of nuclear security Ahmad Haghtalab said last week that Israeli threats could push Tehran to “review its nuclear doctrine and deviate from its previous considerations.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on Tehran’s nuclear program, issued a fatwa, or religious decree, in the early 2000s banning the development of nuclear weapons because they are contrary to “the spirit of Islam.”
During Friday Ramadan prayers on April 5, the regime’s main imam gave a sermon calling on the supreme leader to cancel the fatwa and order the Iranian nuclear agency to build a bomb, as retaliation for an alleged Israeli strike that killed a senior IRGC officer. Instead, Iran launched a barrage of over 300 missiles and drones at Israel.
Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in February that Iran has continued to enrich uranium at rates up to 60 percent purity, which is far beyond the needs for commercial nuclear use and is a short technical step away from weapons-grade 90%.
Iran claims its nuclear program is only for civilian use, pointing to the fatwa. However, experts say there is no civilian application for uranium enriched to that level, and Iran has been known to ramp up nuclear activity to flex its muscle during times of increased tensions with the West.
Israel and others have accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons despite the ban, lobbying for sanctions and a credible military threat should safeguards be breached.
Tensions between Israel and Iran have abated somewhat after a tense first half of April that began with an alleged Israeli airstrike on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria, that killed seven IRGC members, including two generals.
Iran retaliated on April 13, launching over 300 missiles and drones, which Israel, with the help of the United States and other allies, intercepted almost entirely, though a 7-year-old Bedouin girl in the south was severely injured in the attack, and minimal damage was done to the Nevatim airbase outside Beersheba.
Israel, in response, was reported on Friday morning to have struck an airbase near Isfahan in central Iran, damaging a radar defense system. Iran downplayed the attack, saying no link to Israel was found, thus allaying fears of a wider regional war.
According to The New York Times, the radar system was guarding the secret Natanz nuclear facility, thought to be hidden deep underground.
Amir Bar Shalom contributed to this report.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-says-nuclear-arms-ban-still-in-place-after-calls-to-abandon-fatwa/.