Iran has never sought nuclear weapons and never will, Khamenei aide says

The Islamic Republic has long ruled out developing nuclear weapons, a top political advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said, in dovish remarks pointing to a potential openness to reviving talks with the United States.

"Iran has never sought nuclear weapons and never will," said Ali Shamkhani during a visit to the Atomic Energy Organization in Tehran on Monday.

"However, we will fully defend our legal rights in political and technical aspects with all our strength," the former security chief added.

Western powers say Tehran's expansion of its nuclear program lacks any credible peaceful purpose.

As economic malaise in Iran has deepened, renewed talks with the United States over the disputed nuclear program are widely viewed as the best avenue to ease sanctions.

Iran maintains that it will not pursue nuclear weapons, citing a long-standing fatwa or religious edict by Khamenei banning all weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear arms.

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 Iran has the capacity to produce nuclear weapons and an existential threat could prompt a reconsideration of the Supreme Leader’s injunction.

Iranian authorities have consistently asserted that the country's nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes.

However, Western powers and independent nuclear experts argue that the levels and quantities of enrichment undertaken by Iran since 2021 go far beyond those needed for energy or scientific research purposes.

"Iran continues to develop its nuclear program to levels that lack any credible civilian justification," France, Britain and Germany said in a joint statement to the United Nations in December.