An Iranian lawmaker said on Wednesday the country should pursue building a nuclear weapon since it already paid a heavy price for its nuclear activities in a 12-day conflict with Israel and the United States in June.
“I’ve always believed we should have built it long ago. I’ve always supported building a nuclear bomb because we’ve already paid the costs for it,” national security committee member Ahmad Bakhshayesh told state media on Tuesday.
Bakhshayesh argued that nuclear-armed China is a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and that Iran should have taken the same path long ago.
“We should have built it without leaving the NPT,” he added. “We’ve been entangled in this nuclear issue in our country for 25 years now.”
Beijing acceded to the NPT in 1992 but conducted its first nuclear weapons test in 1964. China is one of the five recognized nuclear-weapon states under the agreement, alongside the US, Russia, the UK, and France.
NPT debate in Tehran
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful.
France, Germany, and the United Kingdom last month triggered the so-called "snapback" mechanism within a 2015 international nuclear deal to which they are party along with Iran, giving Tehran 30 days to comply with the agreement or face restored international sanctions.
Calls have grown inside Iran to withdraw from the NPT in response.
A bill to exit the agreement is under review in the Iranian parliament. Some lawmakers argue the legislature can pass the measure on its own, while former nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said the ultimate decision rests with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
'No inspection yet'
UN nuclear chief Raphael Grossi on Wednesday inked a deal to pave a way forward on resuming cooperation with Iran alongside its foreign minister Abbas Araghchi at a ceremony in Cairo.
Araghchi later told state TV that the Cairo agreement “recognizes Iran’s legitimate security concerns" and does not by itself reopen facilities to inspectors.
The three European powers said on Wednesday they were alarmed by the lack of clarity on Iran's stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium and that Tehran must show not claim if it wanted to avoid more sanctions.
