Iran will build nukes if its existence is in danger, senior Iranian official warns

The Iranian regime will build nuclear bombs should its existence be threatened, a senior Iranian official charged, weeks after an Iranian officer made similar threats.

“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,” said Kamal Kharrazi, who heads the Strategic Council for Foreign Relations and is an advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

In an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday, Kharrazi was asked about Iran’s response if Israel was to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.

If this happened, “our level of deterrence will change,” Kharrazi declared. “We have experienced deterrence at the conventional level so far. If they intend to strike Iran’s nuclear capabilities, naturally, it could lead to a change in Iran's nuclear doctrine.”

Tensions between Israel and Iran flared up after Israel killed several Iranian military operatives in Syria who were responsible for directing Iran's actions against Israel.

Shortly after the massive drone and missile strike by Iran against Israel, the Jewish state struck a radar station guarding a nuclear site in retaliation.

A few days later, Ahmad Haghtalab, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander in charge of nuclear security said that Israeli threats made it “possible to revise our nuclear doctrine and deviate from our previous considerations.”

The Iranian regime has been working toward building nuclear weapons for decades while simultaneously threatening to “wipe Israel off the map.”

The Iranian regime claims its nuclear ambitions are solely for generating electricity, even though officials have stated that pressure from Western nations could push it to pursue nuclear weapons.

Khamenei officially banned the development of nuclear weapons in a fatwa (ruling of Islamic law) in the early 2000s, which he reiterated in 2019.

“Building and stockpiling nuclear bombs is wrong and using it is haram (religiously forbidden),” he said.

On Tuesday, Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog IAEA slammed the regime for its “completely unsatisfactory” conduct after returning from a visit meant to work out details of a deal to expand inspections of the regime’s nuclear program.

“The present state is completely unsatisfactory for me. We are almost at an impasse and this needs to be changed,” Grossi told reporters. There was no “magic wand” to solve a “very, very complex set of issues.”

“But of course, for me and also I would say for the international community, there is a need to have some results sooner rather than later,” he said.