Khamenei banned nuclear weapons development, military cleric says

Iran’s Supreme Leader has forbidden the development of nuclear weapons, the head of Armed Forces Judiciary said a day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, sounding a conciliatory note as Tehran explores talks to ease sanctions.

“The late Imam Khomeini did not allow the use of chemical weapons or any illegal and unconventional weapons, even against enemy forces,” Ahmadreza Pourkhaghan said, referring to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s predecessor and the Islamic Republic's founder, Rouhollah Khomeini.

“It is based on this doctrine that the Supreme Leader does not permit the armed forces of the Islamic Republic to develop nuclear weapons,” Pourkhaghan added in a speech in Tehran.

Tehran’s peaceful nuclear rhetoric

Pourkhaghan’s comments come as Iran signals its willingness to resume negotiations to ease sanctions which have hobbled its economy.

On Tuesday, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for international and legal affairs said Tehran is ready to engage in talks if other parties are.

The remarks also follow President Trump’s Monday speech, in which he referenced the increase in Iran’s oil revenue under his predecessor, likely signaling a continuation of his first administration’s maximum pressure strategy.

Meanwhile, Rafael Grossi, the chief of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, urged Tehran to reach an understanding with the Trump administration over its nuclear program, warning of escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Before Trump’s re-election as US President in November, 39 Iranian lawmakers called on the Supreme National Security Council to review Iran’s defense doctrine and consider adopting nuclear weapons.

However, less than a fortnight before Trump's inauguration, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian reaffirmed the country’s adherence to a peaceful nuclear policy, citing Khamenei’s fatwa banning nuclear weapons.

“The Islamic Republic has absolutely no intention of utilizing its nuclear capabilities for military purposes based on its ideological beliefs and a fatwa by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,” Pezeshkian said during a meeting with Britain’s ambassador.

Khamenei's fatwa on nuclear weapons
Iran's government has consistently maintained that it will not pursue nuclear weapons, citing a fatwa or religious edict by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banning all weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear arms.

Iranian officials first referenced Khamenei’s fatwa at an IAEA meeting in Vienna in August 2005 and reiterated it at the International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament in April 2010.

According to Khamenei’s official website, Iran’s mission later pledged to submit a translation of the fatwa in several languages to the UN for registration as an official document.

In an October 2019 speech, Khamenei said that building and maintaining nuclear weapons is "absolutely haram," meaning strictly forbidden under Islamic law.

However, analysts argue that the fatwa is merely an advisory opinion rather than a binding legal decree. They say it was intended to mislead the international community about the true intentions of a nuclear program that Tehran insists is peaceful.

Kamal Kharrazi, a senior foreign policy advisor to Khamenei, said last year that while Iran has the capability to produce nuclear weapons, an existential threat could prompt a reconsideration of the Supreme Leader’s injunction.