No place for nuclear weapons in Iran’s doctrine: Kanaani

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani reiterated Monday that nuclear weapons have no place in Iran’s nuclear doctrine, a couple of days after a senior IRGC commander pointed out that Iran may reconsider its nuclear doctrine amid growing Israeli threats to the country’s nuclear plants.

“Iran has repeatedly said its nuclear programme only serves peaceful purposes. Nuclear weapons have no place in our nuclear doctrine,” Kanaani told a press conference in Tehran.

The IRGC commander in charge of nuclear security, Ahmad Haghtalab, said last week that Israeli threats could prompt Iran to “review its nuclear doctrine and deviate from its previous considerations.”

It is noteworthy that in the early 2000s, Iranian leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei issued a religious decree banning the development of nuclear weapons.

Touching on the drone attack that targeted the Iranian city of Isfahan early Friday, Kanaani stressed that “the recent incident was not of great importance,” noting that “even the Israeli regime refused to propagate it because it was not valuable.”

He revealed that the recent incident saw quadcopters shot down by Iran’s defense system, underlining that the enemy could not benefit from the failed attack.

He highlighted that Iran’s Operation True Promise targeted only Israeli military and intelligence headquarters and avoided residential areas in the occupied territories.

He confirmed that the goal behind the Iranian missile and drone strikes was to punish “Israel” for attacking the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus on April 1, which he said violated the UN Charter and the sovereignty of a UN member state.

The Iranian diplomat affirmed that his country acted within its legitimate rights under international law to create deterrence, targeting Israeli facilities directly involved in the aggression on the Iranian consulate in Syria.

The spokesperson pointed out that Iran has shown it will not think twice before responding to any threat to its national security.

Commenting on the fresh sanctions imposed on Iran, Kanaani warned that further measures would serve as a reward for the Israeli occupation entity and an illegal step against a state that followed international law to deter aggression.

He also expressed disappointment with the European Union’s silence toward the Israeli occupation entity, which has been waging a war on the Palestinian people in Gaza and committing massacres and genocide for nearly seven months.

Read more: UN Charter stipulates Iran’s right to self-defense