Iran Has No Need for Nuclear Bombs: Cleric

Tehran’s provisional Friday Prayers leader reiterated the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program and said the country continues to enrich uranium solely to supply energy in the Islamic Republic.

“Iran continues the (uranium) enrichment to supply its (needed) energy,” Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani said, addressing worshippers in Tehran on Friday.

“This enrichment is not aimed at building an atomic bomb because Iran neither considers the atomic bomb legitimate nor needs it,” the cleric added.

If Iran wants to attack a state like Israel, it would be enough to hit Israel’s nuclear power plants, he said, adding that in that case, Israel will be “plowed” by its own nuclear arsenal.

The remarks came after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned the parties to the 2015 nuclear deal that their failure to take “practical measures” to ensure Iran’s interests until July 7 will force Tehran to enrich uranium at any level it would want, above a 3.67 percent purity.

Addressing a cabinet session on Wednesday, President Rouhani made it clear that Tehran will take the next step in reducing its commitments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) if the remaining parties to the nuclear deal fail to take practical measures to guarantee Iran’s interests.

Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, US, Britain, France, and Germany) on July 14, 2015, reached a conclusion over the text of the 2015 nuclear deal.

The accord took effect in January 2016 and was supposed to terminate all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran all at once, but its implementation was hampered by the US policies and its eventual withdrawal from the deal.

On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the nuclear accord.

Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord.

However, the EU’s failure of ensuring Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments under JCPOA in May 2019.

Iran has also set a 60-day deadline for the remaining JCPOA parties to fulfill their undertakings.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the country’s enriched uranium stockpile has passed the 300-kilogram limit.

“The first phase is underway, which includes both the (enriched) uranium and heavy water stockpiles, and the next phase have been announced and will be implemented,” Zarif has said.

Tasnim News Agency