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An analyst says the fatwa by Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei against nuclear weapons is a “political milestone” which should put an end to Western allegations against Iran.
“The fatwa of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution can well serve as a beacon of light for Washington in order to find its way out of darkness and ignorance,” author and Middle East expert Ismail Salami wrote in an article which appeared on the Press TV website on Thursday.
On February 22, Ayatollah Khamenei said the Islamic Republic considers the pursuit and possession of nuclear weapons “a grave sin” from every logical, religious and theoretical standpoint.
The Leader described the proliferation of nuclear weapons as “senseless, destructive and dangerous,” adding that the Iranian nation has never sought and will never seek atomic bombs as the country already has the conventional capacity to challenge the nuclear-backed powers.
Salami said the binding religious decree is also political in nature, adding that the “sanguine air and feel-good atmosphere” of the recent talks between Iran and world powers was indebted to the “optimism this fatwa inspired.”
The Iranian expert went on to challenge the Western allegations of a covert weaponized Iranian nuclear program, saying not only is there “no evidence whatsoever pointing to this notion,” but history also attests that “Iran has never been an aggressor; rather it has become a victim of aggression.”
Citing the complicity of the US and other Western countries in arming the Baathist regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons, which Baghdad used against innocent Iranians during its eight-year (1980-1988) war on Iran, Salami said the Islamic Republic never stooped to the commit similar acts of “inhumane atrocities” and “never did the same to retaliate.”
“Painful as it is, the US government threw all its intelligence, financial and military support behind a regime it knew thrived on evil and havoc,” he added.
“Under the encouragement and direction of the US government, how many bombs fell on the Iranian cities while people were sleeping? How many youths lost their lives in a war that dragged on for eight years? How many women were widowed? How many children were orphaned?” Salami queried before asking, “Is there no remission to this political insanity?”
The Iranian political analyst said it now falls on Washington to lighten the burden of its moral and financial debt to Iran by taking “the first steps to dispel ambiguities as to its intentions about the Iranian nation.”
“There seems to be little hope the upcoming talks [in Baghdad on May 23] will bear splendid fruits unless the US dismounts its mule of obstinacy, puts an end to its animosity towards the Islamic Republic, forsakes its morbid cynicism and acknowledges that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program,” Salami concluded.
