Iranian officials are seeking to openly pursue nuclear weapons following Israel’s weekend attack on a host of military installations, publicly acknowledging work that Tehran has long tried to hide from the international community.
Mohammad Reza Sabbaghian, a member of Iran’s parliament, said on Sunday that nuclear weapons are the only way to deter future attacks by Israel, signaling an increased appetite within Tehran’s hardline leadership to openly pursue an atomic bomb.
"In response to the aggressor Zionist regime and the United States, we must consider [achieving] the defense weapons that these aggressors and bullies have, and the defense and nuclear doctrine of our country should be revised," Sabbaghian was quoted as saying during a session of parliament. "I condemn the Zionist regime's cowardly aggression against Iran, which was carried out with the direct and indirect support of the U.S. and Europe."
While Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa, or ban, on nuclear weapons development in the 1990s, the Islamic Republic has continuously conducted secretive atomic research, including work on detonators, uranium enrichment, and missile technology that could carry a warhead. Iran is closer than ever to a nuclear bomb under the Biden-Harris administration, which has poured billions into the hardline regime’s coffers through sanctions relief and diplomatic deals, including a $6 billion ransom in 2023.
One of the sites hit by Israel in its massive air campaign over the weekend, the Parchin military facility, previously housed Iran’s contested nuclear weapons program. Other sites, such as ballistic missile factories, serve as hubs for Tehran’s work on technology that could arm rockets with nuclear tips. Iran has also been enriching uranium, the key fuel in an atomic weapon, to levels needed for a bomb. This would put the hardline regime within weeks of a functional weapon, according to assessments by the United States and other Western powers.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, said Tehran's more brazen nuclear rhetoric indicates just how close it is to building a weapon. It also signals the country's desperation as Hamas and Hezbollah, its two top terror proxies, continue to receive crushing blows from Israeli forces.
"We can expect more of a political chorus calling on Khamenei to accelerate the regime’s nuclear program and threaten weaponization," he said. This year "has seen no shortage of statements by Iranian officials, current and former, civilian and military, about the closeness of Iran's atomic program to a weapons capacity already, as well as how best to, for lack of a better word, weaponize its near threshold status."
Iran’s renewed focus on a nuclear weapon comes amid fresh threats to attack Israel as payback for the strike, bringing the region even closer to a full-blown war between Israel and its top nemesis.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Monday that Tehran "reserves the right to respond to Israeli aggression in accordance with international law," according to the country’s state-controlled press.
Araghchi added that his country "does not seek to use nuclear energy militarily," citing the ayatollah’s fatwa and "logical assessments" about the international response this would spur. Israel, for its part, has repeatedly said it will never allow Iran to become a nuclear power.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, following a Sunday cabinet meeting, said that Tehran "is not seeking war but will defend its rights in the recent aggression of the criminal Zionist regime."
This is similar to Israel’s own rhetoric following the weekend onslaught.
"The message is that we don’t want an escalation but if Iran decides to escalate and attack Israel again, this means that we have increased our range of freedom of movement in the Iranian skies," an Israeli official told the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.
Iranian officials also sought to downplay the severity of Israel’s attack, claiming the country’s air defenses intercepted most of the munitions dropped. "The enemy’s plans were blocked from entering the country’s airspace," an Iranian army commander said over the weekend.
Israeli assessments, as well as Western media reports, show this is false.
Israel decimated large portions of Iran’s air defense systems, including the advanced Russian-made S-300 system. Satellite imagery reviewed by the Associated Press showed extensive damage to Iran’s ballistic missile facilities and other military sites.
Explosions could be seen at several locations in Tehran and other cities after Israel sent more than 100 warplanes into Iranian airspace. All of them returned home safely, signaling that Tehran was unable to stop the airstrike even though it had nearly a month to prepare.