Tehran – Iranian officials often assert the peaceful intent of their nuclear program by insisting that the religious law that governs their country expressly prohibits weapons of mass destruction.
Yet interviews with a range of clerics and other students of Islamic teachings indicate that while Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini indeed barred Iranian forces from unconventional weapons during the 1980-88 war with Iraq, the religious underpinning for such a ban is regarded as less than absolute, with ample justification available in scriptures for almost any course except first use.
“This question is ambiguous,” said Grand Ayatollah Jalalodine Taheri, who was a leading figure in the Iranian government before becoming a sharp critic. Taheri, 80, said religious texts might offer avenues allowing stockpiling such weapons in the name of deterrence or self-defense. “It’s not clear,” he said.
Those arguing for the loopholes include clerics closely identified with the country’s most hard-line conservatives.
“Producing and using WMD is forbidden, just as producing deadly poison or harmful drugs,” said Mohsen Gharavian, who teaches Islamic philosophy in the holy city of Qom and is a spokesman for an archconservative ayatollah.
But, he added, “there is this principle of all or none. If a nation arms itself with such weapons, it is quite logical for other nations to think of defending themselves against these kinds of weapons.”
