Khamenei escalates, saying: If we want to build nuclear weapons, they cannot stop us
Three weeks after he insisted on the use of “pious” (hypocrisy and disbelief) methods, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed Sunday during a meeting with a group of directors of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization that if his regime wanted nuclear weapons, the opponents would not have been able to stop him.
The Iranian leader called reports on the Iranian regime’s previous efforts to acquire nuclear weapons “lies” and claimed that “based on our Islamic principles, we do not want to turn towards nuclear weapons, otherwise they would not be able to prevent us”.
“The pretext of nuclear weapons is a lie, and they know it,” Ali Khamenei said, according to the Iran International television website.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already spoken on several occasions about the “sanctity” of nuclear weapons, but Israeli officials have always viewed these statements as part of the practice of “technology” and warned against “deceiving” the Iranian regime in this regard.
Three weeks ago, Khamenei emphasized the need to use “Taqiyya” in a meeting with Foreign Ministry officials and regime ambassadors, saying in a speech to Iranian foreign affairs officials that he had previously “elaborated” on “Taqiyya.”
Taqism is a concept in Shia jurisprudence that allows Shia to hypocrisy and hide their beliefs and lie during times of emergency and persecution.
He said, “Technology means that when you move somewhere, when you get to a rock that you can’t cross, you have to find a way to get past the rock, flexibility means that. It doesn’t mean we don’t keep going and back down, no, but we won’t fight the rocks, we exercise flexibility, to find another way.”
In the years that followed, there were numerous reports of Iran trying to acquire an atomic bomb.
According to reports, the Iranian nuclear bomb making project was followed up on in the “Imad” project, under the responsibility of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
The project was halted in 2003 and, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, its ultimate goal was to make nuclear warheads, each with a force equal to five nuclear bombs and ten kilotons of TNT.
Ali Motahari, a former deputy speaker of Iran’s parliament, acknowledged that Iran had sought from the outset to build a nuclear bomb “to strengthen deterrence” but could not keep the issue secret.
“The enemies have created a nuclear challenge for us for 20 years, because they know that movement in the nuclear industry is the key to scientific progress in the country,” Khamenei claimed in remarks on Sunday.
While Iran’s uranium enrichment level raised global concerns, the Iranian leader said that the international powers “have not been able to stop our nuclear developments yet.”
