“American or Israeli bomb Iran is forced to move towards production of atomic bombs under nuclear arguments,” Ali Larijani said in a televised interview on Monday.
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would order a military strike against Iran if Tehran fails to sign a new contract with Washington in its nuclear program. “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” he said in an interview with NBC News.
Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, prohibits the development, possession and use of nuclear weapons in his religious order (fatwa). In an interview Monday, Larijani mentioned the fatwa and said that religious bans were stronger than mere political order. But he said military strikes against Iran are not necessarily without consequences. “People put pressure on us to build nuclear bombs.”
Trump wrote to Iran on March 12 via emissions from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to demand negotiations be opened for a deal that says Iran will stop building nuclear weapons. This is while he escaped from a multinational nuclear deal with Iran in 2018. On February 4th, the US President signed a memorandum of understanding from the president to restore hostile policies from his first term of office, “maximum pressure” on the Islamic Republic.
Iran, which relayed its response to Trump’s letter through Oman, ruled out direct negotiations with the United States, as long as “maximum pressure” policies and military threats are in place.
MP/IRN85792038