ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian parliament deputy speaker Hamidreza Hajibabaei said on Thursday that the country's leadership must consider growing public demands for a change in its nuclear strategy, warning that Tehran would use all legitimate means to defend itself, as US President Donald Trump insisted that Washington's military campaign against Iran was necessary to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.
"What the people are demanding these days is a change in our nuclear strategy. They are exercising their absolute right to make such a proposal. Officials and all those responsible for making decisions on this matter must examine the issue. The world must understand that this is the demand of 90 million Iranians. If Iran is in danger, we will use every legitimate and permissible means and tool," Hajibabaei told Iranian state media.
The remarks come amid mounting calls from Iranian political figures and commentators for Tehran to reconsider its longstanding nuclear doctrine, which officially prohibits the development of nuclear weapons.
Iran has maintained that its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful, while Western governments, particularly the United States and Israel, have long accused Tehran of seeking the capability to develop nuclear weapons.
On Thursday, Trump defended the US military campaign against Iran, reiterating that preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons remained a central objective.
“Everybody knows we had to attack Iran. We had to make sure they never have a nuclear weapon, and it’s gonna be over very, very soon,” he told a rally in South Carolina.
Hajibabaei has previously defended Iran's nuclear programme, insisting in June that uranium enrichment was an inalienable right of the Iranian people and was not subject to negotiation.
“No country can deprive the Iranian nation of this legal and legitimate right, and the Islamic Republic will not back down from it,” he stated.
He also warned that Tehran would not yield to threats from its adversaries and would respond forcefully.
Meanwhile, Iranian political analyst Shahriar Zarshenas went further on Thursday, openly advocating the development of nuclear weapons as a means of deterring foreign attacks.
"Our strategy must become a nuclear bomb strategy. We must acquire a nuclear bomb, just like China did in 1964 and the Soviet Union in 1946. We must reach that point so that the enemy will leave us alone. North Korea, despite being a small country that cannot be compared to us in terms of natural resources, economic power or geopolitical position, is under siege," Zarshenas told the Student News Network (SNN).
His comments reflect an argument increasingly voiced by some Iranian hardliners that possessing nuclear weapons could provide Tehran with a deterrent against military intervention, similar to North Korea's nuclear arsenal.
Iran's official nuclear policy has long been shaped by a religious ruling attributed to the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prohibiting the production and use of nuclear weapons.
However, Iranian officials have previously warned that the country's nuclear doctrine could change if its existence were threatened.
