Iran's military urges leader to lift nuclear weapons ban - Telegraph
Iran's military calls for the abolition of the regious ban on nuclear weapons (photo: Getty Images)
Iran's top military officials are calling for the abolition of a fatwa (religious order - ed.) banning the creation of nuclear weapons. They said that this may be the last chance for the country to acquire a nuclear arsenal, The Telegraph reports.
The newspaper's anonymous sources said that Iran's high-ranking military officials decided to appeal to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after Donald Trump was elected to a second presidential term.
"We have never been this vulnerable, and it may be our last chance to obtain one before it’s too late," one of the sources told The Telegraph.
At the same time, one of the Iranian officials anonymously told the publication that Khamenei had banned both negotiations with the United States and the development of nuclear weapons, which the military viewed as the regime's "only ways for survival."
The source noted that Iran has been "a few button presses away from building a nuclear weapon for some time now."
Iran's Nuclear Policy
In 2005, during the International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a fatwa prohibiting the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons.
A fatwa is a religious decision that declares nuclear weapons to be "absolutely haram" (forbidden in Islam).
This fatwa has become the basis of Iran's official policy on its nuclear program, which declares the country's intention to develop nuclear technology exclusively for peaceful purposes such as energy and medicine.
However, earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Iran was increasing its nuclear program and it was approaching the point of no return. In his opinion, Tehran is one of the biggest strategic and security challenges for Europe and its allies.
Later, the US said that new intelligence on Iran's nuclear program has convinced its officials that a secret team of Iranian scientists is studying a faster approach to developing nuclear weapons.
