Iran’s debate over whether to change its longstanding nuclear policy has moved into official forums, but the country’s top security official says Tehran has not approved a decision to build a nuclear weapon.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Oct. 31 that neither the government nor the broader political establishment had decided to alter the country’s nuclear doctrine, according to Iran International. He acknowledged, however, that attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities had prompted public demands to reconsider the policy, including whether the existing position should be maintained if fighting resumes.
The comments came as calls to revise Iran’s nuclear doctrine and pursue an atomic bomb gained visibility on official platforms and among hard-line voices. Rezaei said Iran had cooperated fully with International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. He also said in September that U.S. and Israeli actions gave Tehran grounds to consider withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the international agreement that limits the spread of nuclear weapons.
Iran’s nuclear activities have become harder for international monitors to assess since military conflict disrupted inspections. In an Oct. 27 statement to the United Nations Security Council, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said the agency had withdrawn its inspectors from Iran for safety reasons after military attacks began in June 2025. A separate IAEA statement said the agency had lost continuity of knowledge about previously declared nuclear material at facilities affected by the attacks, including 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium that it had been unable to verify since June 2025.
The IAEA said limited verification work later resumed at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, but no inspections had been conducted at other declared nuclear facilities during the reporting period. The agency’s September safeguards report also recorded severe damage at the Khondab facility and described inspection activity at Bushehr in June 2026.
Iran’s position leaves open three possibilities: retaining a civilian program under international safeguards, rebuilding to a threshold level that would leave the country near the capability to produce bomb fuel, or moving toward weaponization. Rezaei’s latest remarks indicate that a formal decision to pursue a bomb has not been announced, even as the war and the loss of access for international inspectors have intensified pressure on Tehran’s nuclear policy.