Nuclear weapons have no place in Iran's nuclear doctrine, the country's foreign ministry said on Monday, days after a Revolutionary Guards commander warned that Tehran might change its nuclear policy if pressured by Israeli threats, Reuters reported.
"Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear program only serves peaceful purposes. Nuclear weapons have no place in our nuclear doctrine," ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani was quoted as having said during a press conference in Tehran.
His comments came after the Guards commander in charge of nuclear security, Ahmad Haghtalab, said last week that Israeli threats could push Tehran to "review its nuclear doctrine and deviate from its previous considerations."
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, banned the development of nuclear weapons in a fatwa (religious decree) in the early 2000s.
Iran has continued to claim that it is adhering to Khamenei’s fatwa and is not seeking nuclear weapons, but at the same time has continued to develop its nuclear program.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a report earlier this month that Iran has greatly increased activity at the Fordow nuclear facility, moving it closer than ever to the production of nuclear weapons.
An IAEA report in March said that Iran's stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% had fallen slightly in the past quarter as it had diluted, or "downblended", more of its most highly enriched material than it had produced.
The report stressed that Iran still has enough of that material, if enriched further, to fuel two nuclear weapons and enough for more bombs at lower enrichment levels.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Passover in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)