Mahmoud Aghamiri, the president of Tehran’s Beheshti University, stated in a televised interview that the religious decree and opinion of the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei regarding the “forbidden” nature of building an atomic bomb “may change” in the future. He pointed out that given the presence of technology and capability, building an atomic bomb for Iran is easier than not building one.
In his interview, Aghamiri said, “The discussion is not about building an atomic bomb at all. When your capability is high, this itself is power. The Supreme Leader has said that going in this direction is forbidden. Of course, this is what we think now. He is a mujtahid and tomorrow he may change his opinion.”
A mujtahid is a highly knowledgeable Islamic scholar capable of deriving legal rulings from Islamic sources.
Wary of facing pushback from its warmongering in the #MiddleEastConflict, #Iran's regime has sent another official to play the nuclear extortion card, hinting that its Supreme Leader may reconsider his fatwa and pursue nuclear weapon production. pic.twitter.com/NR14AOpObd
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 9, 2024
“Ijtihad means exactly this,” Aghamiri added. “Today, his ruling is that this should not be done. But this is nothing compared to nuclear capability. I’ve said this before. For example, if they want to make an atomic bomb… an atomic bomb is not complex at all. When you can have a reactor… a reactor is a device that does not control chain reactions… I mean it is controlled in a nuclear reactor. But if you want to make a device where you don’t control this reaction, well, this is much easier. The important thing is that today we have this nuclear capability.”
Aghamiri’s comments arise in the context of ongoing debates about targeting Iranian regime operatives, assets, and interests in response to its destructive involvement in Middle Eastern conflicts. Tehran, fearing potential repercussions for its breaches of international law and sovereignty violations, has repeatedly resorted to nuclear bomb threats as a means of intimidating the international community and avoiding severe consequences.
On February 9, 2021, trying to push back international pressure, Mahmoud Alavi, the regime’s former Minister of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) used a TV interview to suggest the regime could potentially opt to develop nuclear weapons.
“Our nuclear program is peaceful and the fatwa by the supreme leader has forbidden nuclear weapons, but if they push Iran in that direction, then it wouldn’t be Iran’s fault but those who pushed it,” Alavi said.
“If a cat is cornered, it may show a kind of behavior that a free cat would not,” he said and added that Iran has no plans to move toward a nuclear weapon under current circumstances.
