Ali Khamenei's fatwa against nuclear weapons

A fatwa by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, against the acquisition, development and use of nuclear weapons[1] dates back to the mid-1990s.

[2] The first public announcement is reported to have occurred in October 2003, followed by an official statement at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna in August 2005.

[3][4] According to Mehdi Khalaji, Khamenei may alter his fatwa under critical circumstances, as did his predecessor, Ayatollah Khomeini, on some civil and political issues.

[9][10] At a meeting with the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry members on May 20, 2023, Ali Khamenei said that entering the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement centered on restricting Iran's nuclear program, was taqiyah.

[4] Two years later, in August 2005, the fatwa was cited in an official statement by the Iranian government at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

In a statement on a conversation with Hasan Rouhani, Obama said: Iran's supreme leader has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons.

[3]The fatwa is regarded as consistent with a set of rules in Islamic tradition that prohibit weapons that indiscriminately kill women, children and the elderly.

[3] James Risen of The New York Times noted that Khamenei said "that it was a mistake for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya to give up his nuclear weapons program".

[23] On November 1, 2015, The Jerusalem Post also noted that the fatwa came after President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani had admitted the nuclear option was explored and referred to it in an interview.

He argued that Khomeini altered some of his former viewpoints on issues such as taxes, military conscription, women's suffrage and monarchy as a form of government and so Khamenei may likewise modify supplanting his nuclear fatwa under critical circumstances.

Porter argues that fact to suggest strongly that Iran has sincerely made a "deep-rooted" ban on developing chemical and nuclear weapons.

In an interview with Porter, Mohsen Rafighdoost, the eight-year wartime minister of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, disclosed how Khomeini had opposed his proposal for beginning working on both nuclear and chemical weapons by a fatwa.