Letter shows Khomeini considered nukes

UPI: A newly disclosed letter from Ayatollah Khomeini written in 1988 says that Iran would need nuclear weapons to win the war with Iraq, a report says.
United Press International

TEHRAN, Sept. 30 (UPI) — A newly disclosed letter from Ayatollah Khomeini written in 1988 says that Iran would need nuclear weapons to win the war with Iraq, a report says.

Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani released the letter as part of a feud with a military commander over responsibility for the 1988 cease-fire, the BBC reports.

In the letter, Khomeini, who died in 1989, quotes the country’s leading military commander of the day on the weaponry Iran would need to continue fighting. The letter also reveals that Iran’s economy had been almost destroyed by the eight-year war and that the supply of military volunteers was drying up.

The letter strikes a nerve because the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has denied that Iran plans to develop nuclear weapons. He has said that such weapons would violate Islamic principles.

But the letter suggests that Khomeini, leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, had no such qualms.