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Iran had ‘system’ to create weapon

Campbell macdiarmid

Iran created a “system” to develop an atomic weapon, a former Iranian nuclear chief has said in comments undermining years of official rhetoric claiming the Islamic republic’s nuclear research program was peaceful.

Fereydoun Abbasi-davani, who formerly headed the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, made the admission ahead of renewed negotiations on Monday aimed at restoring Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

In an interview published to mark the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Abbasi-davani said the top Iranian nuclear scientist had been killed by Israel’s spy agency Mossad.

For years, Iranian officials have cited a fatwa by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prohibiting the development of nuclear weapons as proof that its atomic program was aimed at civilian purposes.

But Abbasi-davani said research went further and had a military aspect.

“Although our stance on nuclear weapons based on the supreme leader’s explicit fatwa regarding nuclear weapons being forbidden is quite clear, Fakhrizadeh created this system and his concern wasn’t just the defence of our own country,” he said.

The interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency came ahead of Iran resuming negotiations with world powers over returning to the nuclear deal. The Vienna talks are the first on Iran’s nuclear plans since Iran elected a new hard-line president, Ebrahim Raisi, in August, following six rounds of fruitless talks between April and June.

Iran had refused to meet directly with the U.S. since then-president Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018, arguing it did not go far enough in limiting Tehran’s nuclear program.

Since then, Iran has progressively walked back from its commitments under the deal, enriching uranium beyond the 3.67 per cent limit set by the 2015 agreement.

This year, Iran has enriched uranium to 60 per cent, much closer to the 90 per cent needed for a weapon. Experts say there are few legitimate peaceful applications for such high levels.

Hopes of a breakthrough at the latest talks appear slim, with Tehran adopting a strict stance and requesting guarantees the U.S. will not leave the deal again.

“Our demands are clear. Other parties and especially Americans should decide whether they want this deal to be revived or not. The U.S. should return to it and lift all sanctions,” an Iranian official told Reuters.

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2021-11-30T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-30T08:00:00.0000000Z

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