Ali Akbar Salehi, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and the former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, confirmed the implicit achievement of the Iranian regime in the ability to build an atomic bomb, stating, “We have all the thresholds of nuclear science and technology.”
Nuclear negotiations between Iran and global powers have been suspended for several months.
In a television interview, Salehi refrained from giving a direct answer to a question about whether the Iranian regime has reached the ability to build nuclear weapons or not, adding, “We have all the thresholds of nuclear science and technology. I’ll give you an example. What does a car want? It wants a chassis, an engine, a steering wheel, and a gearbox. You tell me, did you make the gearbox? I say yes. Did you make the engine? Yes, but each one is for its own purpose.”
In addition to serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Salehi has also headed the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran for a while and is considered one of the close figures to the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
This is not the first time that regime’s officials claim to have achieved the ability to build an atomic bomb.
In July 2022, Kamal Kharrazi, the head of the regime’s Strategic Council for Foreign Relations and an advisor to Ali Khamenei, stated in an interview with Al Jazeera that Iran has the technical capabilities to build a nuclear bomb but has no intention of doing so.
Regarding the regime’s capabilities to build a nuclear bomb, Kharrazi, in the interview with Al Jazeera, added: “In just a few days, we increased the uranium enrichment level from 20% to 60%, and it can easily be raised to 90%.”
Earlier, Mohammad Eslami, the current head of the AEOI, did not rule out the possibility of enriching uranium to the level required for making a bomb in an interview with the same network and stated that the decision for 90% enrichment depends on the “relevant authorities.”
Khamenei commands all the armed and military forces of the country and is the ultimate decision-maker in the field of the regime’s nuclear activities.
Regime officials have repeatedly stated that, based on a decree (Fatwa) by Khamenei, building an atomic bomb is not on Tehran’s agenda. However, this regime has a long history of reversing its own edicts when its interests require it.
Salehi continued in his recent television interview about secret negotiations with the United States in Oman during his tenure, saying that these negotiations took place with the permission of the Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime.
He added that then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opposed these negotiations.
Nuclear negotiations between Iran and global powers, which resumed after the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden, have not yet reached a conclusion.
Following the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA during the presidency of Donald Trump, the Iranian regime repeatedly called for guarantees to prevent a repeat of the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA if it is revived.
Some experts at the beginning of the Biden era had said that providing such a guarantee from the U.S. government is not possible due to the power structure in the country.
In late December 2023, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that the Iranian regime had increased the production of enriched uranium with a purity of up to 60% to about 9 kilograms per month.
According to the agency, this amount of uranium is produced at the Fordow and Natanz sites.
