- If history is anything to go by, the Supreme Leader’s statement is barely worth a pinch of salt. It is notable that that the first time Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons took place right after his government was caught red-handed pursuing secret nuclear activities and enriching uranium in two clandestine nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak in 2002 in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
- Having been found out for their deception, the Iranian authorities subsequently adopted deception as a national policy by promoting the narrative of aversion to nuclear weapons to the world while embracing and furthering their nuclear activities privately.
- First of all, no one, it seems, has ever laid eyes on this proclaimed fatwa.
- Khamenei’s nuclear fatwa is nothing but a phony decree aimed at deflecting attention from Iran’s nuclear ambitions and activities. It is designed solely to serve the interests of his umma (Islamic community) and the Islamic Republic.
In the world we live in where many things are certain, one of them is the Iranian regime’s recent efforts to invoke a fatwa in an attempt to deceive the West. The declaration of a fatwa by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to serve as “proof” that Tehran is not pursuing nuclear weapons is a move both mischievous and clever.
Recently, the junior Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul, met with Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif, who in his deliberations with Senator Paul told him about Iran’s unwillingness to seek nuclear weapons because of Khamenei’s fatwa.
Iran’s Supreme Leaders had been previously quoted as saying:
“We consider the use of such weapons as haraam [religiously forbidden] and believe that it is everyone’s duty to make efforts to secure humanity against this great disaster”.
Going even further, the Supreme Leader claimed that the production or use of nuclear weapons are governed by Islamic laws which ban them. On his official website, he adds that “Both sharia [Islamic laws] and aqli [related to logic and reason] fatwas dictate that we do not pursue them.”
