Iranian fatwa approves use of nuclear weapons
London, Feb. 19 (PTI): Iran's influential hard-line spiritual leaders have issued a fatwa or holy edict, sanctioning the use of atomic weapons as a "countermeasure" against other nuclear powers.
The fatwa, which for the first time questions the theocracy's traditional stance that Sharia law forbade the use of nuclear weapons, signals Tehran's stiffening resolve on the nuclear issue, 'The Sunday Telegraph' reported today.
According to it one senior cleric it is "only natural" to have nuclear bombs as a "countermeasure" against other nuclear powers, thought to be a reference to America and Israel.
The pronouncement is particularly worrying because it has come from Mohsen Gharavian, a disciple of the ultra-conservative Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, who is widely regarded as the cleric closest to Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi's group opposes virtually any kind of rapproachement with the West and is believed to have influenced President Ahmadinejad's refusal to negotiate over Iran's nuclear programme.
The comments, which are the first public statement by the Yazdi clerical cabal on the nuclear issue, will be seen as an attempt by the country's religious hardliners to begin preparing a theological justification for the ownership - and if necessary the use - of atomic bombs.
The fatwa, which for the first time questions the theocracy's traditional stance that Sharia law forbade the use of nuclear weapons, signals Tehran's stiffening resolve on the nuclear issue, 'The Sunday Telegraph' reported today.
According to it one senior cleric it is "only natural" to have nuclear bombs as a "countermeasure" against other nuclear powers, thought to be a reference to America and Israel.
The pronouncement is particularly worrying because it has come from Mohsen Gharavian, a disciple of the ultra-conservative Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, who is widely regarded as the cleric closest to Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi's group opposes virtually any kind of rapproachement with the West and is believed to have influenced President Ahmadinejad's refusal to negotiate over Iran's nuclear programme.
The comments, which are the first public statement by the Yazdi clerical cabal on the nuclear issue, will be seen as an attempt by the country's religious hardliners to begin preparing a theological justification for the ownership - and if necessary the use - of atomic bombs.
posted by Marko at 2/19/2006 05:02:00 PM
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