TEHRAN: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Iran does not have any intention to develop nuclear weapons, but if it did, no world power could prevent it from possessing that, Iranian media reported.
“We believe nuclear arms must be eliminated and we don’t want to build nuclear arms,” Khamenei said on Saturday morning, as quoted by the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA).
“But if we did not believe this and decided to have nuclear arms, no power could stand in our way,” he added.
In his speech, Khamenei lashed out at the US and accused them of fraud, saying that Washington calls for the elimination of nuclear weapon while producing it itself.
The US and some of its Western allies accuse the Islamic republic for enriching uranium for an atomic weapons program, while Tehran insists that their nuclear program is for civilian purposes.
In the past, Iranian officials have said that a religious decree issued by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banning nuclear weapons is binding on the country.
Earlier this week, the Iranian Foreign Ministry called for the destruction of all nuclear arms following North Korea’s third nuclear test.
“We need to come to the point where no country has any nuclear weapons and at the same time all weapons of mass destruction and nuclear arms need to be destroyed,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast said.
However, while visiting Moscow, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said that North Korea had the right to conduct its a nuclear test, as it withdrew from the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003.
DND
