Iran hardliner demands atomic bomb as Khamenei threatens unrestricted retaliation against US
A senior Iranian lawmaker Saturday renewed demands that Tehran build an atomic bomb shortly after Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued a defiant statement ordering military preparations for “an immediate and unrestricted response” against the US and Israel.“Given the threats facing the Iranian nation, it can be confidently stated that a change in the nuclear doctrine is the demand of the overwhelming majority of the heroic people of Iran,” Mahmoud Nabavian, a hardline member of Iran’s Parliament for Tehran, wrote on X.“We must respond at the same level at which the enemy attacks us,” he added in a second post, citing a verse from the Quran that says one should retaliate against any aggression in equal measure.“The nuclear doctrine is determined and promulgated based on the country’s security and defense conditions,” he insisted.Nabavian, the former first deputy chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, had previously urged the Khamenei to greenlight an atomic bomb — a position he’s held since at least 2024.His latest demand comes as Iran faces the prospect of renewed military action by the US and Israel — and marks a public push by hardliners to overturn Tehran’s longstanding official opposition to nuclear weapons.Nabavian’s call followed a brash statement by Khamenei ordering the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to update its list of US and Israeli targets to include all “physical and non-physical” assets within the reach of Iranian forces.“If the enemies once again launch military attacks, it is the armed forces of the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation that will determine the time and conditions for ending them,” he said in a statement on his official social media accounts and broadcast on state media.The directive comes amid growing fears of renewed war in the Middle East, with the supreme leader now declaring Tehran will no longer limit itself to the region.“Any level or type of threat must b...