Economic plans ready if snapback activates, says Iran’s First VP

71 members of parliament sent a letter to the Supreme National Security Council and the heads of the three branches of power, urging a “review of the Islamic Republic’s defense doctrine,” Iranian media reported Monday.

The lawmakers wrote that the use of nuclear weapons “was the subject of the Supreme Leader’s 2010 fatwa,” but argued that building and stockpiling them “as deterrence is another matter.”

Seventy-one members of parliament signed a letter to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and the heads of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, demanding a “review of the Islamic Republic’s defense doctrine,” according to the daily Hamshahri Online.

In their letter, the lawmakers wrote, “We respectfully request that, since the decisions of that council acquire validity with the endorsement of the Leader of the Revolution, this matter be raised without delay and the expert findings communicated to the parliament.”

The lawmakers argued that while the use of nuclear weapons would contradict a 2010 religious edict by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei prohibiting them, developing and maintaining such weapons “as a deterrent is another matter,” the outlet said.

“In Shia jurisprudence, a change in circumstances and conditions can alter the ruling. Moreover, safeguarding Islam -- which today is bound to the preservation of the Islamic Republic -- is among the paramount obligations. On this basis, the original prohibition can, as a secondary ruling, be transformed into a permissibility.”

The initiative was led by Hassan-Ali Akhlaghi Amiri, a lawmaker from the holy city of Mashhad, Hamshahri reported.

• 

  Khamenei's Nuclear Fatwa: A Fiction From The Start

• 

  Iran torn between escalation and diplomacy after UN sanctions vote

• 

  Moderates and hardliners enlist Khamenei in fight over diplomacy

Iran has long insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only and cites Khamenei’s fatwa against nuclear weapons as proof of its intentions. The United States and its European allies accuse Tehran of seeking the capability to produce nuclear arms, a charge Iran denies.

The calls from lawmakers come as Iran faces the prospect of renewed United Nations sanctions under a “snapback” mechanism set to take effect on September 28, after European powers accused Tehran of failing to honor the 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran is not known to have made any decision to pursue nuclear weapons, and the government has not commented on the lawmakers’ letter.

Nearly 90 percent of people after the 12-day war want the construction of an atomic bomb, said a state TV program on Monday.

The remarks were made during a conversation between a host and Mostafa Khoshcheshm, a government-affiliated strategic affairs analyst.

In recent days, following the start of the snapback mechanism, a number of parliament members have called for building nuclear weapons.

Iran should expel the ambassadors of Germany, Britain and France in response to the activation of the snapback mechanism, Hossein Kanani-Moghaddam, secretary-general of Iran’s Green Party, said on Monday.

“Iran must downgrade its relations with these countries to the lowest possible level, and they must pay the cost of their actions,” Kanani-Moghaddam added.

Iran will not allow Western states to inspect its ships after the return of UN Security Council sanctions, a lawmaker said Tuesday.

“We will not permit our ships to be inspected,” said Salar Velayatmadar, a member of the parliament’s National Security Committee.

Tehran has measures to prevent such restrictions and can continue exports and arms shipments in various ways because destination countries need its weapons, Velayatmadar said.

Only financial transfers from arms sales “might face some trouble,” and both partner states and Iran have arrangements to resolve that problem, Velayatmadar added.