The taboo is broken: Iran's path from denying the bomb to the nuclear threat

The article describes the erosion of the Iranian taboo surrounding nuclear weapons, reviewing the history of the secret program, Khamenei's fatwa, and statements by officials over the years. Following the war and the elimination of Khamenei, calls in Iranian media to withdraw from the NPT and obtain a bomb are growing.

The article reviews the shift in Iran's nuclear policy, from an official denial of any ambition for nuclear weapons to an open discussion of the need for them. For years, Tehran relied on a fatwa by Supreme Leader Khamenei that banned nuclear weapons, while simultaneously running a secret program to develop them, Project 'Amad' led by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. In 2018, the Mossad exposed the Iranian nuclear archive. The article quotes statements by Iranian officials over the years, including former Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi, who said that 'a cat cornered may behave differently,' and Khamenei's senior advisor Kamal Kharrazi, who said that Iran could easily enrich uranium to 90%. The current war and the elimination of Khamenei in February 2026 accelerated the process, and according to a Reuters report, the idea of withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is gaining ground in Iran's state-run media.