Former Iranian Parliament member Ali Motahari said in an April 24 interview on the Islamic Republic’s ISCA News that when Iran began developing its nuclear program, the goal was to build a nuclear bomb.
According to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the bomb would have been used as a “means of intimidation” in accordance with a Koranic verse about striking “fear in the hearts of the enemies of Allah,” said Motahari.
He noted the nuclear bomb program would have been “a done deal” if Iran had kept it a secret until a nuclear test was conducted, as Pakistan did.
Motahari added that in such a case, Iran would have been “taken into consideration” by the world even more than it is today.
IDF Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael (Mickey) Segall, an expert on strategic issues with a focus on Iran, terrorism, and the Middle East, and a senior analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and at Alcyon Risk Advisors, reported the following update:
A short time after the interview was broadcast, a “knowledgeable” source denied Motahhari’s assertions. In an interview with the Nour News Agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the official said Iran’s nuclear program “never had a military dimension, and that irresponsible people made statements based on a lack of knowledge or their subjective political opinions.”
The Tasnim News Agency quoted Motahhari as retracting his assertion that Iran had sought nuclear weapons, saying in a clarification that “the hypocrites distorted Iran’s involvement with the issue.” Much of the Iranian media quoted Nour and published Motahhari’s clarification.
Motahhari: I was misunderstood
On April 25, Motahhari issued a denial on his Instagram account, saying his words had been taken out of context and that Iran had never sought nuclear weapons.
“What I said was that at the beginning, there were people who believed that building bombs to scare the enemy away was acceptable… the sentence has not been properly reflected by ISCA,” he wrote.
The Tasnim News Agency quoted Motahhari as retracting his assertion that Iran had sought nuclear weapons, saying in a clarification that “the hypocrites distorted Iran’s involvement with the issue.” Much of the Iranian media quoted Nour and published Motahhari’s clarification.
