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Former Iranian Official Admits "Iran Was Trying to Build Nuclear Weapons"

(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael Segall and Iran Desk - On April 24, 2022, the former Deputy Chairman of the Iranian Parliament, Ali Motahhari, said in an interview that from the start of its nuclear program, Iran sought to produce nuclear weapons. "At the beginning, when we launched the nuclear program, our aim was to develop the bomb and improve our deterrent power." Motahhari quoted parts of the Quran's Surah al Anfal (60): "And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy. However, we failed to keep it a secret, and our confidential reports were revealed" by the exiled opposition organization Mujahideen Khalq. "If we could have developed a bomb secretly and tested it like Pakistan did, it would have been a strong deterrent and international players would have been more considerate of Iran's status. Other countries rely on nuclear strength. I believe that when we start something, we should see it through to the end." Ali Motahhari is the son of Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari, one of the founders of the Islamic Republic of Iran and an ideologist who was close to Khomeini and headed the Revolutionary Council during the inception of the Islamic Revolution. Motahhari's words sparked great interest in the world media, and various state-run Iranian media hastened to deny them. The Iran Student Correspondents Association (ISCA) that published the interview re-edited it and removed the parts on Iran's original intentions to produce nuclear weapons. The writer is a senior analyst at the Jerusalem Center.
2022-04-28 00:00:00
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