WMDs have no place in our nuclear doctrine: Iran

News Desk - The Cradle 

An Iranian official threatened last week that Iran could strike back at Israel’s nuclear facilities if its own were targeted

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on 22 April that there is “no place” for nuclear weapons in its atomic energy program, coming just days after an Iranian official said the Islamic Republic may revise its nuclear strategy in light of Israeli threats. 

“Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear program only serves peaceful purposes. Nuclear weapons have no place in our nuclear doctrine,” Kanaani said during a press conference in the Iranian capital on Monday. 

On 18 April, the commander of Iran's Nuclear Centers Protection and Security Corps, Brigadier General Ahmed Haq Talab, said that if Israel decides to strike one of the country's nuclear facilities, the Islamic Republic could “revise” its nuclear doctrine.

“If the Zionist regime wants to take action against our nuclear centers and facilities, it will face our reaction ... [on its] nuclear centers,” the senior commander said. “It is possible and conceivable to revise the nuclear doctrine and policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and to deviate from the considerations announced in the past,” Talab emphasized.

He also reminded Tel Aviv that its nuclear facilities “are identified and the necessary information about all the targets are at our disposal,” adding that the IRGC has “their hand on the trigger to fire powerful missiles to destroy specified targets.” 

“If the Zionist regime commits an act of aggression against Iran … the blow it receives from the armed forces will be remembered in history like Operation True Promise,” Talab added. The statement came a few days after Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel, which was a retaliation for the Israeli strike that destroyed Tehran’s consulate in Syria and killed several senior officials on 1 April. 

Less than one day later, early on 19 April, Iranian air defenses intercepted three drones from attacking the cities of Isfahan and Tabriz. Tehran initially said the attack was domestic and confirmed that military and nuclear facilities were safe and unharmed. 

While Israel did not acknowledge the attack, western media cited US officials as saying that Israeli missiles had hit Iran.

Iranian opposition outlet Iran International published satellite images on 21 April, which it alleged to show damage to an air defense system in Isfahan. Israeli officials told the New York Times on 22 April that Israel “abandoned” plans for a bigger attack on Iran and limited its response in order to avoid a full-scale war with Iran. 

In 2003, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa (religious decree) outlawing the production of any weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), including nuclear armaments. Iran is also a part of the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), aimed at stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. 

“If it wasn’t for [the fatwa] and we wanted to do it, they wouldn’t have been able to stop it, just as they haven’t been able to stop our [peaceful] nuclear advances and won’t be able to,” Khamenei said in June 2023.