AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi
Mahmoud Alavi

Senior Iranian official breaks the silence and admits Iran was lying when it said it would never make a nuclear weapon.

By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel

One of Iran’s top government officials admitted that Tehran’s official policy that they would “never” make an atomic bomb is a sham.

Minister of Information Mahmoud Alavi said in an interview published Monday by the official IRNA news agency that if the U.S. doesn’t remove crippling economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic then it might make nuclear weapons.

“Our nuclear industry is peaceful and the fatwa of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution has declared nuclear weapons forbidden, but if they push the Islamic Republic of Iran in that direction, it is no longer the fault of Iran but the fault of those who pushed Iran,” said the powerful government minister.

A “fatwa” is an Islamic religious ruling, and Iran had consistently claimed that the fatwa proved that the supposedly “peace loving” nation would never use its vastly funded nuclear program for anything but “peaceful purposes.”

However, Alavi’s admission has revealed that the development of nuclear weapons, which requires vast resources and investment that have nothing to do with “peaceful” nuclear energy, was part of Iran’s strategy all the time.

Alavi repeated the Iranian demand that a return to the Iran Nuclear Deal would require the Americans to move first.

“The only way for the Americans is to lift the sanctions at once,” Alavi said, adding that Iran is demanding the U.S. pay financial compensation for the sanctions that would amount to billions of dollars.

“The United States imposed cruel sanctions on the people of Iran, which we emerged victorious and proud with the wise guidance of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution and the resistance of the nation, and the founder of the sanctions [former President Donald Trump] was thrown into the sewer of history,” Alavi said.

Although President Biden said he wanted to return the U.S. to the nuclear deal that President Trump pulled out of two years ago, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN Monday that Iran had to make the first move.

“The President’s been very clear about this. If Iran returns to compliance with its obligations under the nuclear agreement, we would do the same thing,” Blinken said. “So the first thing that’s so critical is for Iran to come back into compliance with its obligations. They’re a ways from that. But if they do that, the path of diplomacy is there, and we’re willing to walk it.”