FAS on Iranian nukes; intentions and 2 CRS reports

here

IRAN'S MISSING ANTI-NUCLEAR FATWA In a defiant statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency this week, the government of Iran declared that it would resume uranium enrichment activities but denied that it was pursuing nuclear weapons. As evidence of its peaceful intentions, Iran noted that the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamanei had issued a fatwa (an Islamic religious edict) proscribing such weapons. But although it has been repeatedly referenced by Iranian officials, there does not seem to be any published text of such a fatwa, leaving its political significance and even its precise meaning in doubt. "The Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued the fatwa that the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are forbidden under Islam and that the Islamic Republic of Iran shall never acquire these weapons," according to the August 9 statement to the IAEA. See: http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/iran/nuke/mehr080905.html But according to Javad Zarif, the Iranian ambassador to the UN, the decree "prohibit[s] the development and use of nuclear weapons" (Los Angeles Times, 11/05/04). Yet a religious prohibition on *development* of nuclear weapons was not mentioned in this week's statement to the IAEA. The reported fatwa was said to have been issued by the Ayatollah in September 2004 "at Friday prayers." "When the Iranian leader issues such a fatwa, then we have given a political, religious and ideological guarantee that we are not pursuing the production of nuclear weapons," said Hasan Rowhani, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, in a February 8, 2005 interview on Iranian TV. But an Iranian legislative initiative to enact the prohibition on nuclear weapons into statute last year failed. Thus, instead of demonstrating and bolstering the credibility of the reported fatwa, the Iranian government sent sharply mixed signals. Iranian legislator Hojatoleslam Mohammad Taqi Rahbar said last November 9 that the bill to ban nuclear weapons was "not expedient," because Iran is in a region of proliferators. He added, significantly: "There are no Shari'a [religious law] or legal restrictions on having such weapons as a deterrent." See "Dr. Strangelove in Iran," RFE/RL Iran Report, November 23, 2004: http://www.rferl.org/reports/iran-report/2004/11/41-231104.asp In short, efforts by Iranian officials to publicly clarify their religious and political views on nuclear weapons have instead generated new confusion about their actual intentions. ------------------------------------------ CRS ON IRAN See, relatedly, "Iran's Nuclear Program: Recent Developments" from the Congressional Research Service, updated May 18, 2005 and "Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses" updated June 27, 2005