The debate among Iranian hardliners over whether Tehran should seek a nuclear bomb in defiance of United States-Israeli pressure is getting louder, more public, and more insistent, sources in the country say. With the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) now dominant following the killing of former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the war on February 28, hardline views on Iran's nuclear approach are in the ascendant, two senior Iranian sources said.
While Western countries have long asserted that Iran wants the bomb - or at least the ability to make one very quickly - it has always denied that, claiming Khamenei had banned nuclear arms as forbidden in Islam and citing its membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). One of the sources alleged there was no plan to change Iran's nuclear doctrine yet, and Iran had not decided to seek a bomb, but serious voices in the establishment were questioning the existing policy and demanding a change.
The US-Israeli attacks on Iran, which came midway through talks on Tehran's nuclear program, may have changed the equation, convincing Iranian strategists that they have little to gain by forswearing a bomb or staying in the NPT. The idea of quitting the NPT - something hardliners have previously threatened - has been increasingly aired on state media along with the idea that Iran should go outright for the bomb. (Read More)
The US-Israeli attacks on Iran, which came midway through talks on Tehran's nuclear program, may have changed the equation, convincing Iranian strategists that they have little to gain by forswearing a bomb or staying in the NPT. The idea of quitting the NPT - something hardliners have previously threatened - has been increasingly aired on state media along with the idea that Iran should go outright for the bomb. (Read More)
