The uneasy standoff between Iran and the United States also has a nuclear dimension. Under a proposed deal, America wants Iran to hand over its around 450 kilograms of uranium to an international body. Iran is unwilling to accept the U.S. condition but has expressed its readiness to freeze its uranium enrichment for five years.

America wants Iran to freeze its uranium enrichment for 25 years before other issues like the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, lifting of sanctions on Iran, unfreezing of its assets by Washington, curbing Iran’s missile programme, and restricting Tehran from supporting its proxies like Hezbollah of Lebanon and the Houthis of Yemen are resolved.

Following the standoff on Iran-U.S. talks after the holding of direct negotiations in Islamabad, it has been more than a month since a fragile ceasefire has been in place. The bottom line for the U.S. and Israel in their conflict with Iran is the nuclear issue.

When, two decades ago, the world, particularly the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), noticed the progression of Iran’s uranium enrichment, the then supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, in a fatwa, termed nuclear weapons as haram (illegal) and vowed that his country would never go for manufacturing a nuclear device. As a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran is committed not to go nuclear.

But after the death of Ali Khamenei as a result of the American-Israeli attack, is his successor Ali Mojtaba Khamenei committed to that fatwa? After facing relentless U.S.-Israeli attacks from February 28 till the ceasefire in the first week of April, is Iran not rethinking its fatwa and considering the option of going nuclear?

In an article, “Cornered and wounded, will Iran now go for a nuclear bomb?” by Mostafa Salem and Leila Gharagozlou in CNN on March 29, 2026, the authors argue that: “The calls to pursue a nuclear bomb grew louder with Israel’s unprecedented military operation against Iran last year which killed several of the country’s military and nuclear leaders.

The U.S. and Israel, despite all their........

© The Friday Times