Tehran Has 'Never Demanded' IRGC Terror Delisitng, Iran Official Says

Mohammad Javad Larijani, a former high-ranking official and one of the Larijani brothers who have long been influential regime insiders, told a TV program in Tehran on Sunday that if Iran wants to build a nuclear bomb “no one can stop it.”

Referring to what Iran says is a Fatwa by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei against producing weapons of mass destruction, Larijani said, “We do not have permission to pursue weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, but if at some point we decide to do it naturally no one can prevent us.” Without naming the United States or Israel, he added, “They also know this.”

Hours before Larijani’s remarks on television, Kamal Kharrazi, Khamenei’s top foreign policy adviser told Al Jazeera Arabic, ““It is no secret that we have the technical capabilities to manufacture a nuclear bomb, but we have no decision to do so.”

The subtle threats from two senior Iranian figures come in the wake of President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia last week, during which the president sounded a bit more forceful regarding Iran and its nuclear threat. Long before the trip, there were media reports of the United States forging some sort of a military network between Israel and Sunni Arab states opposed to Tehran’s rulers.

The trip, according to most assessments, had relatively modest results that can be summed up in reassuring Israel about US commitment to its defense and a start to re-building confidence with Saudi Arabia after a rough start by Biden. The US also signed a joint declaration with Israel, which said Washington is committed to preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state.

Larijani in his remarks also tried to appear optimistic about the stalled nuclear negotiations with the US. “I believe that the slowing down in the JCPOA process will be quickly fixed,” but he quickly added that Iran’s ability to make a nuclear bomb “is not something that can be eradicated with bombings.” Larijani was most likely referring to repeated Israeli threats to use a military strike if it feels Tehran is on the verge of building a bomb.

Larijani also took a jab at Biden, saying, “They swore not to let Iran obtain nuclear weapons, but American policies, are ancient like Biden. They are powerless in front of us.”

The chief of Israel's armed forces Lieutenant-General Aviv Kochavi said Sunday that preparing a military option against Iran is amoral duty and an urgent national security matter.

In fact, Iran’s ruler Khamenei is four years older than the US president.

Iran currently has sufficient uranium enriched to 60-percent purity to produce weapons-grade fissile material at 90-percent enrichment. The remaining stage would be the knowhow to make a nuclear bomb, and what Kharrazi and Larijani have hinted at is that Iran has that capability.

Iranian media have often perceived Levan Dzhagaryan's (Jagarian) controversial behavior as intervention in Iran's internal affairs or as flat insults although he does not seem to be bothered by the accusations. On social media, however, and recently in Tehran media Iranians have been demanding an answer to the ambassador's outrageous and provocative remarks.

Khabar Online, a moderate conservative news outlet in Tehran asked on Sunday, July 17, "Where are the government and the foreign ministry" after Dzhagariantold Sharq newspaper in Tehran the day before that "We have always been on Iran's side, but the West want to bring their absurd values such as homosexuality and other dirty things to Iran but we object to that!"

Many Iranians on social media reminded the ambassador that Russia is a large producer of pornography in the world.

The ambassador also said in the same interview: "There are things that I don’t want to reveal, but what is clear is that Iran owes us hundreds of millions of euros and doesn’t pay." Some Iranians on social media perceived this as a prelude to plundering Iran's resources as the alleged debt is about decades of Russia's partnership with the Islamic Republic in constructing the Bushehr nuclear power plant that contributes little to Iran’s electricity.

In an earlier remark, Dzhagaryan had said that "hijab and the lack of alcoholic drinks in Iran prevent Russian tourists from coming to Iran." His remarks which contained criticism of the Islamic Republic's underlying values, was harshly criticized by former Iranian lawmaker Ali Motahari.

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At the same time, Motahari and many other Iranians on social media criticized the Raisi administration's silence in the face of Dzhagaryan's comments. The ambassador's earlier remarks particularly angered Iranian journalists when he told them not to call Russia's war against Ukraine an "invasion." The journalists charged that the Raisi administration does not object to Dzhagaryan because it does not want to annoy Russia which is Tehran's close ally.

In another development, when President Biden and the first lady congratulated Iranians on Nowruz, Dzhagarayan dismissed Biden's gesture as "hypocrisy" and reminded that Biden has imposed sanctions on Iran.

These and several other remarks and actions by the ambassador have most certainly not been constructive while at a higher level, Iran and Russia do a lot to pretend to be allies against the United States and Europe.

The Islamic Republic has gone out of its way to give Russians the authority to intervene during Iran's negotiations with the West to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

Although Putin's visit to Tehran is officially within the frameworks of the Astana Peace Process for Syria, the initiative is long dead and Putin, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's Khamenei are part of the problem in the Syrian civil war rather than being able to offer solutions.

Putin is most likely visiting Iran to personally convey his messages to Khamenei who never travels abroad and have a meeting with Erdogan to sort out problems about seizing Russian food cargos going through the Bosporus, based on arrangements with NATO.

Meanwhile, Eurasia expert Mahmoud Shouri told reporters in Tehran that Cold War geopolitical demarcations are being revived. He said the meeting in Tehran could be part of the initiatives to forge new alliances. He added in view of the fact that Biden did not gain much during his regional tour, Russia must be thinking of leaving the void Washington has left behind in the region.

What Khamenei can get out of the meeting is pretending that new alliances in the Middle East have not totally isolated him as he can at least host Putin.

“It is no secret that we have the technical capabilities to manufacture a nuclear bomb, but we have no decision to do so," Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations and senior adviser to Khamenei told Al Jazeera's Arabic service.

"In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium,” Kharrazi said while stressing that Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but has not decided to build one.

This is not the first time that Iranian officials say Iran is a nuclear threshold country butdoes not want or need a nuclear weapon and is only enriching uranium for energy and other civilian uses. They often add that Iran's supreme leader has declared that the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons are all forbidden under Islam (haram).

Khamenei’s fatwa, or religious edict, against the acquisition or manufacture of nuclear weapons was first revealed in a statement from Iran to the International Atomic Agency (IAEA) in Vienna in August 2005.

But former Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi in February 2021 hinted that the fatwa could change. Former Iranian diplomat and IRGC brigadier-general Amir Mousavi also in an interview with Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television in January 2021 had said fatwas are not permanent and are issued in accordance with developing circumstances. “Therefore, I believe that if the Americans and Zionists act in a dangerous manner, the [Khamenei] fatwa might change.”

Indirect talks between Iran and President Joe Biden

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's administration, which aims to bring both Washington and Tehran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear pact, officially known as the JCPOA, have been in limbo since March. Tehran and Washington both put the onus of breaking the deadlock on each other.

"There are no American guarantees relating to preserving the nuclear deal, and this will freeze any possible agreement," Kharrazi told Al Jazeera. He was referring to Iran’s demands to receive guarantees that the US would not leave the JCPOA and also lift all sanctions impacting its economy.

The advisor to Iran's Leader further said that direct talks with Washington were difficult “due to the thick wall of mistrust and American policies” while insisting that Tehran would never negotiate over its missile program and regional policy, as demanded by the US and its allies in the Middle East. “Accepting this would mean capitulating [to their demands].”

He also said that speaking of “Middle Eastern NATO” -- a military alliance in the Middle East that similar to NATO -- was “a superficial notion” and that “Saudi Arabia has stressed that such a plan is not on the agenda.”

Kharrazi stressed that the Islamic Republic would directly respond against Israel should its security be targeted. "Targeting our security from neighboring countries will be dealt with a response from us to these countries and a direct response to Israel. We have held extensive drills targeting Israel's depth in case our sensitive facilities are targeted."

But since mid-2020, Israel has reportedly targeted Iran’s sensitive facilities and top personnel several times and Iran has not responded directly.

The US and Israel recently agreed to take a joint stance against Iran's nuclear program and involvement in regional conflicts and said they would work together to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The US and Saudi Arabia also agreed on July 15 on preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon during US President Joe Biden’s visit to Riyadh.

At the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Lapid said, “We came and asked to introduce a credible military threat during President Biden’s visit. We want the basis [for world power’s negotiations with Iran] to be a credible military threat. We didn’t necessarily agree on this with the Americans at the present time.”

He said he “made it clear to the president and his team that Israel opposes the nuclear deal and maintains complete freedom to act, diplomatically and operationally, in the face of the Iranian nuclear program.”

Lapid also described Biden’s trip to Israel “a historic visit, with achievements in diplomacy, security and the economy.”

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Lapid’s office also issued a photo of him hanging up the so-called Jerusalem Declaration -- signed by Lapid and Biden in which Washington committed to “use all elements of its national power” to ensure Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon -- in the cabinet meeting room in Jerusalem. Lapid said he was hanging the statement “in the place intended for historical declarations.”

Washington pledged further “defense assistance” on top of the $38 billion 10-year Memorandum of Understanding in 2016 under President Barack Obama and the $1-billion assistance after the 2021 Israeli-Palestinian violence centered on Gaza.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani made the remarks on July 16, in reaction to Biden’s address to a summit of regional Arab states in the Saudi city of Jeddah, accusing the Islamic Republic of destabilizing activities in the region. 

Rejecting the US president’s remarks as unacceptable and unfounded, Kanaani said, "Such groundless allegations are in line with Washington’s policy to incite sedition and create tension in the region... by resorting to its failed policy of Iranophobia.”

“False accusations that the United States levels against Iran’s peaceful nuclear program while turning a blind eye to several decades of the Zionist regime’s deception as a regime that is not a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) while possessing the biggest nuclear arsenal in the region, are a major sign of hypocrisy of the US government,” he added.

Biden said during his tour that "Around the world, we’re seeing efforts to undermine the rules-based order: with China’s increasingly coercive actions in the Indo-Pacific and beyond; with Russia’s brutal and unprovoked war against its neighboring Ukraine; and with Iran’s destabilizing activities," emphasizing that “It’s only becoming clear to me how closely interwoven America’s interests are with the successes of the Middle East…We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran.”