Khamenei aide warns Iran may review nuclear doctrine if facing ‘existential threat’
Kamal Kharrazi asserts Islamic Republic ‘ready for war but we don’t want to escalate,’ also says Tehran likely to increase range of its ballistic missiles
Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Friday that the Islamic Republic may review its nuclear doctrine if Tehran is exposed to an “existential threat.”
“We now have the technical capabilities necessary to produce nuclear weapons… Only the supreme leader’s fatwa currently prohibits it,” Kharrazi told Hezbollah-linked broadcaster Al-Mayadeen.
“If the survival of Iran comes under serious threat, we reserve the right to reconsider,” the Tehran Times quoted him saying.
Khamenei banned the development of nuclear weapons in a fatwa in the early 2000s, reiterating his stance in 2019 by saying: “Building and stockpiling nuclear bombs is wrong and using it is haram [religiously forbidden]… Although we have nuclear technology, Iran has firmly avoided it.”
Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened to upend the country’s nuclear doctrine in recent years.
Kharrazi reiterated that Iran would respond to Israel’s retaliatory attack last weekend at the appropriate time and manner, adding that Tehran was also likely to increase the range of its ballistic missiles.
“We are ready for war, but we do not want to escalate because we have currently proven our ability to deter from doing so,” he said, according to a translation of the interview from The Telegraph.
“The matter is up to the Israelis; if they really want to continue, we will respond to them. Our missile capabilities are clear to everyone and everyone believes in them, and we have proven that during our operations.”
Amid fears of a potential Iranian response to the Israeli strikes in Iran, which were launched in retaliation for the Islamic Republic’s October 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel, the Kan public broadcaster reported Friday that Israel has upped its security measures at a sensitive security facility.
The network did not specify which facility it was referring to.
The report also said Israel was continuing to hold assessments on the expected scale and timing of the Iranian attack in light of next week’s US presidential elections. Israeli officials reportedly believe that Iran will indeed respond, whether directly or through its proxies in Iraq and Yemen.
On Thursday, The New York Times reported that Khamenei ordered military officials to prepare a reprisal attack against Israel, but said its response was not expected to come until after Americans go to the polls on November 5, though other news outlets have quoted sources saying it could come ahead of the vote.
