Amid tensions between Israel and Iran, a top Iranian advisor said that the country could be pushed into building a nuclear bomb if its existence is threatened.
“We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine,” said Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday.
“In the case of an attack on our nuclear facilities by the Zionist regime, our deterrence will change,” he was reported as saying by Iran’s Student News Network.
The comments come in the backdrop of Iran claiming that its nuclear programme is a peaceful one. Khamenei had banned the development of nuclear weapons in a fatwa, in around 2000s, saying that it is “haram” or forbidden in Islam.
The crisis between Israel and Iran erupted into open confrontation on April 1, when Israel led an attack on a diplomatic facility in Damascus that killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers, including two generals who led the elite Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon.
Iran responded with a barrage of more than 300 missiles and drones on April 13, the first direct attack ever launched against Israel from Iranian soil.
Since 2017, Israel has frequently conducted airstrikes on sites associated with Iran and the Lebanese organization Hezbollah in Syria, escalating the rate and severity of these attacks on what is referred to as the “axis of resistance” following its war on Gaza in October last year.