Khamenei aide: Iran likely to up range of missile program, could change nuclear doctrine

Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, tells pro-Iran broadcaster Al-Mayadeen that changing the country’s nuclear doctrine is on the table 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 says.

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 reiterates that Iran will respond to Israel’s retaliatory strike at the appropriate time and manner.

He adds that Iran is also likely to increase the range of its ballistic missiles.