Iranian commander says Tehran could review ‘nuclear doctrine’ following Israeli threats
Tehran could review its “nuclear doctrine” after Israel threatened retaliation over a missile and drone attack last week, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander said on Thursday.
Ahmad Haghtalab, the IRGC commander in charge of nuclear security, suggested Iran’s nuclear program could be used in the escalating conflict against Israel should the Jewish state target Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
“The threats of the Zionist regime against Iran’s nuclear facilities make it possible to review our nuclear doctrine and deviate from our previous considerations,” Haghtalab was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Tehran has previously maintained that its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes.
The position, however, appears to be conditional following Israel’s vow to retaliate against Iran’s attack on Saturday, which was conducted following a suspected Israeli airstrike at an embassy building in Damascus earlier this month that killed two IRGC commanders.
“If the Zionist regime wants to take action against our nuclear centers and facilities, we will surely and categorically reciprocate with advanced missiles against their own nuclear sites,” Haghtalab added.
The final say on the nation’s nuclear program falls to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who previously disavowed nuclear bombs because such weapons are forbidden in Islam.
Despite Khamenei’s claims in the early 2000s, US intelligence has long suspected Tehran of developing nuclear technology for military purposes.
Tehran’s nuclear capabilities have remained a contentious point in global politics, with indirect talks between Iran and the US to revive the 2015 nuclear pact stalled since 2022.
The accord sought to limit Iran from developing nuclear weapons by pushing Tehran to accept several restrictions and undergo extensive inspections from the United Nations.
The deal, which set a cap on Iran’s uranium enrichment at 3.67%, was abandoned in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump.
As of February, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog program warned that Iran was enriching uranium at rates up to 60% purity, which goes far beyond the needs for commercial nuclear use.
Following the attack on Israel last week, both the US and the United Kingdom placed several new sanctions against Iranian operatives in a bid to de-escalate the growing tensions between the Jewish State and Tehran.
With Post wires
