The debate among Iranian hardliners over whether Tehran should seek a nuclear bomb in defiance of an escalating US-Israeli campaign is getting louder, more public and more insistent, sources in the country say.

With the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) now dominant following the killing of veteran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the war on February 28, hardline views on Iran’s nuclear approach are in the ascendant, two senior Iranian sources said.

Iran, whose leaders are sworn to destroy Israel, denies seeking nuclear arms, saying Khamenei issued a religious ban on them and citing the Islamic Republic’s membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

But Western leaders and intelligence services doubt Tehran’s assertions. Iran has enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.

There is no plan to change Iran’s nuclear doctrine yet, and Iran has not decided to seek a bomb, one of the sources said, but serious voices in the establishment are questioning the existing policy and demanding a change.

The US-Israeli attacks on Iran, which came about a month into indirect nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran, may have changed the equation, convincing Iranian strategists that they have little to gain by forswearing a bomb or staying in the NPT.

The idea of quitting the NPT, which Iranian hardliners have previously threatened, has been increasingly aired on state media along with the idea — once taboo in public — that Iran should go........

© The Times of Israel