Iran Will Make a Nuclear Bomb If Threatened with Elimination by Israel

TEHERAN – Iran will make nuclear bomb if its existence or existence is threatened with being wiped out by Israel. Such is the warning delivered by the advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Kamal Kharrazi.

“We have no decision to make a nuclear bomb but if Iran’s existence is threatened, there is no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Kharrazi said, as quoted by Al JazeeraFriday (10/5/2024).

“In the event of an attack on our nuclear facilities by the Zionist regime, our deterrence will change,” he continued.

The comments raise questions about what Iran has long claimed is a peaceful nuclear program.

Khamenei, who has the final say on the matter, banned the development of nuclear weapons in a fatwa in the early 2000s, saying it was “haram” or prohibited in Islam.

But in 2021, Iran’s then-intelligence minister said Western pressure could push the Islamic republic to seek nuclear weapons.

Iran enriches uranium to a purity of 60 percent, while weapons-grade uranium is enriched to about 90 percent.

If existing nuclear material were further enriched, it would be enough to make two nuclear weapons, according to official benchmarks from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The shadow war between Iran and Israel erupted into open confrontation in April, after an Israeli attack on the Iranian embassy compound in the Syrian capital Damascus, which killed seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including two generals who led the IRGC’s Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon.