Khamenei’s words confirm Tehran’s change of narrative on nuclear power
A few days ago, in Atlantico Quotidiano , we reported the Iranian change of narrative regarding the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons or not. We had pointed out, with a series of examples, that although the will to get to the nuclear device is officially denied, Tehran is increasingly warning that – if forced or if necessary – it could cross this red line.
As further confirmation, the words of the Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei of last 22 February. Recall that, according to the narrative of the regime, Khamenei would be the author of a fatwa that would prohibit the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons, but there is no presence of this fatwa on the official website of the Rahbar (and by formal we mean the publication of a text with questions and answers, or the classic way in which Islamic edicts are published).
In a public speech on February 22, broadcast on Iranian TV Channel 1 , Khamenei said that no one could prevent the Islamic Republic from building nuclear weapons if they wanted to. Reiterating the narrative that there is no such perspective, at the same time, for the first time, Khamenei makes it known that Iran has something else in mind: the uranium enrichment threshold, in fact, is not 20 per percent (already explicitly in violation of the 2015 agreement, to which Iran is still voluntarily a party), but if necessary Tehran can raise the enrichment level to 60 percent, if it were necessary to build nuclear-powered engines.
For Khamenei, uranium enrichment is something Iran needs, will carry on and will not come back from.
Very significantly, on the same day that it announced that the Islamic Republic did not rule out equipping itself with nuclear weapons, in case it wanted, and above all the will to increase the enrichment of UF6 up to 60 percent, the Assembly of Experts – or the body that elects the Iranian Supreme Leader, therefore also Khamenei's successor – declared that the regime's missile program is "non-negotiable".
And we remember that, at present, Tehran has ballistic missiles which, if desired, would be able to hit Europe, almost as far as the coasts of southern Italy ( Shahab 3 , Emad 1 and Sejjil missiles , with over 2000 kilometers of range).
The post Khamenei's words confirm Tehran's change of narrative on nuclear power appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/le-parole-di-khamenei-confermano-il-cambio-di-narrazione-di-teheran-sul-nucleare/ on Thu, 25 Feb 2021 04:54:00 +0000.