Former Iranian Majles Member: When Iran Started Its Nuclear Program, Our Goal Was to Build a Bomb

Former Iranian Majles member Ali Motahari said in an April 24, 2022 interview on ISCA News (Iran) that when Iran began developing its nuclear program, the goal was to build a nuclear bomb. He said that there is no need to beat around the bush, and that the bomb would have been used as a "means of intimidation" in accordance with a Quranic verse about striking "fear in the hearts of the enemies of Allah." He said that the nuclear bomb program would have been "a done deal" if Iran could have kept it a secret until a nuclear test was conducted like Pakistan had done, and he explained that in such a case, Iran would have been "taken into consideration" by the world even more than it is today.

When asked if saying this publicly will negatively affect the ongoing JCPOA negotiations, Motahari answered: "Nobody notices what I am saying." He also said that he is speaking on his own behalf, and not in any official capacity. Later in the interview, Motahari said that some people rely on the Quranic verse about striking fear into the hearts of Allah's enemies to permit the construction of a nuclear bomb, but that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's current position is that it is forbidden to build a nuclear weapon.