Bombing Iran would push it to develop nuclear weapons to defend itself

IRNA – A senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Iran doesn’t seek to build nuclear weapons but any strike on the country by the United States or Israel on the false pretext that it does would force the country to develop atomic bombs for defensive purposes.

“If America or Israel bomb Iran under the nuclear pretext, Iran will be compelled to move toward producing an atomic bomb,” Ali Larijani said during a televised interview on Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would order military strikes against Iran if Tehran did not strike a new deal with Washington on its nuclear program. “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” he said in an interview with NBC News.

Ayatollah Khamenei has in a religious decree (fatwa) prohibited the development, possession, and use of nuclear weapons. In the Monday interview, Larijani referred to that fatwa and said the religious prohibition is stronger than a mere political order. But, he said, military strikes against Iran would not be without consequences. “The people will pressure us to build a nuclear bomb.”

Trump sent a letter to Iran via an emissary from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on March 12, requesting that negotiations be opened into a deal that he says would stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon. This is while, in 2018, he pulled out of a multinational nuclear deal with Iran. On February 4, the U.S. president signed a presidential memorandum to restore a hostile policy from his first term of “maximum pressure” on the Islamic Republic.

Iran, which has relayed its response to Trump’s letter via Oman, has ruled out direct negotiations with the United States as long as the “maximum pressure” policy and the military threats are in place.