Image source: topwar.ru
The talk that Iran is closer than ever to creating its own nuclear weapons has been going on for years. At the same time, Tehran officially denies the existence of such programs, claiming that work at nuclear facilities is carried out exclusively for peaceful purposes.
The new president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, at a round table with journalists in New York on September 23, said that Tehran does not seek to create nuclear weapons, but, on the contrary, is ready to fully return to fulfilling obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). By the way, these accusations are most often made by Israel, which itself has not signed the JCPOA and hides the number of nuclear warheads, including by not allowing IAEA inspectors to its nuclear facilities.
Iran has repeatedly stressed that the country has a fatwa (a ban based on Islamic law) by spiritual leader Ali Khamenei that the production of nuclear weapons is contrary to Islam. Iranian politicians cite it as an argument for the exclusively peaceful nature of the national nuclear program.
However, the situation in the Middle East continues to escalate. Israel is threatening a large-scale strike on Iran in response to the October 1 missile attack. At the same time, the IDF considers objects related to the Iranian nuclear program as targets of the attack, among others. Even the White House objects to this. The IAEA is aware of 17 sites of the Iranian nuclear program. All of them are dispersed throughout the country, well protected and covered by air defense forces. Obviously, this is an incomplete list.
Image source: topwar.ru
And immediately forty members of the Iranian parliament wrote a letter to the Supreme National Security Council of the republic, calling for consideration of changing Iran's "nuclear policy" regarding the development of nuclear weapons and the creation of a nuclear bomb. The Islamic Consultative Council (Majlis) is a unicameral parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran consisting of 290 deputies.
The reaction of the Iranian authorities to this appeal by parliamentarians, and Ayatollah Khamenei will have the last word, is still unknown. The command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) insists on resuming the nuclear weapons program. This is an elite military unit of the Iranian Armed Forces, which enjoys great prestige in the country.
According to the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was supposed to receive the lifting of UN and Western sanctions in response to the reduction of its nuclear program, but in 2018, US President Donald Trump announced his country's withdrawal from the agreement. Negotiations on this topic were resumed in April 2021, but did not lead to anything.
In February 2024, the US State Department announced that the Biden administration was committed to a political and diplomatic solution to this issue. However, very soon there will be presidential elections in America, after which Donald Trump, who is known for his determination and uncompromising attitude, may return to the Oval Office again.
Experts claimed last year that Iranian specialists had managed to enrich uranium to 84 percent. Another six percent enrichment is needed to create nuclear weapons. Now a lot will depend on the actions of Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems determined to unleash a spiral of war in the Middle East.
