On July 17, an ex-Iranian official threatened the international community with a potential nuclear bomb. In an interview with the Young Journalist Club (YJC) news agency, Mohammad Javad Larijani, a former judiciary official and a close ally to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said, “No one can prevent us from producing a nuclear weapon if Iran concludes to produce it.”

Speculating why the U.S. had abandoned a military approach against the regime, Larijani stated, “The United States’ policies are archaic, just like Biden’s age. They are incapable against us. Europe and the U.S. back Saudi Arabia with an unlimited amount of weapons; however, they are outmoded weapons that stuck Saudi Arabia in Yemen.”

Reacting to U.S. President Joe Biden’s trip to the Middle East, Larijani said that the U.S. and Israel signed an agreement and pledged together that “We will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.”

Larijani claimed, “Naturally, we have been prohibited from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, including atomic ones, based on the Supreme Leader’s fatwa. However, no one can stop us if we ever decide to do so.”

Larijani’s statement comes just as another former official explicitly revealed that the regime started nuclear activities to produce atomic weapons. On April 24, Ali Motahari, the former deputy speaker of the Iranian parliament [Majlis], said, “When we started nuclear activities, our goal was to make a bomb.”

Back in February 2021, former Minister of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) Mahmoud Alavi also threatened the West with producing nuclear weapons. In an interview with the state-run TV Channel Two, he said, “In his Fatwa, the Supreme Leader announced that the production of nuclear weapons is Haram [forbidden] and contrary to Sharia, and the Islamic Republic would not pursue them.”

Alavi laid the blame for producing nuclear weapons on the West, saying, “However, if [foreigners] caught a cat in an awkward corner, it may behave unlikely to a free cat. If they pushed Iran to that path, then it is not Iran’s fault.”

On the same day, former Foreign Affairs Minister and current chief of the Supreme Council of Foreign Relations Kamal Kharrazi reiterated similar threats. His remarks came following the U.S. President’s pledge about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. He said, “The United States is committed to ensuring that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.”

In an interview with Aljazeera, Kharrazi stated, “We have the technical capabilities to produce a nuclear bomb; however, we have yet to have such a decision. Iran would not negotiate about its missile programs and regional policies because it is equivalent to surrender.”

In a threat to the international community, he added, “We enriched uranium from 20 percent fissile purity to 60 percent only within a few days. We can easily reach it to 90 percent alike.”

In an interview with Al-Jazeera on June 7, Mohammad Eslami, the regime’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) chief, did not reject the possibility of Iran enriching uranium at a 90 percent—weapons-grade level, highlighting that, “The decision to enrich at 90 percent depends on the relevant officials.”

In a nutshell, all evidence shows that the Iranian regime began and continued the nuclear projects to acquire at least an atomic bomb. The 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), failed to stop Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Larijani stated, “The JCPOA slowed our nuclear abilities, but it would be rebuilt soon.”

Remarkably, former IAEO chief Ali Akbar Salehi had already revealed that Tehran never obeyed by JCPOA clauses. He said, “When UN watchdog spectators told us to pour cement into the calendrias… we said: ‘Fine. We will pour.’ But we did not tell them that we had other tubes. Otherwise, they would have told us to pour cement into those tubes as well. Now we have the same tubes.”

The international community should no longer compromise on the Iranian regime’s nuclear extortion. The mullahs have deceived the world, particularly the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), for a long while. Iranian dissidents have routinely emphasized, “The Iran regime only understands the language of power and firmness.”

As the regime continues to blackmail regional and global peace and security, world powers should, once and for all, hold the regime accountable for its constant attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and refrain from encouraging its aggression with further concessions.

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