An influential Iranian lawmaker has proposed that Tehran respond to Thursday's IAEA Board of Governors' censure resolution by escalating uranium enrichment levels and initiating nuclear weapon production.
"Under current circumstances, Iran should first move toward increasing uranium enrichment, potentially raising the enrichment level to 70% or 80%. In the second phase, Iran should pursue nuclear weapon production,” Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran’s Parliament told Didban news website in Tehran.
The Islamic Republic is stockpiling 60-percent enriched uranium, which can be quickly refined to 90%, the level required for nuclear weapons production. While estimates suggest Iran could achieve this enrichment threshold within weeks, building an operational bomb involves additional processes, expertise, and technology. The extent of Iran's progress in developing a nuclear warhead remains unclear.
Ardestani argued that Tehran has little to lose by pursuing nuclear weapons, since it is already under US sanctions. “Currently, we are already deeply entrenched in the boiling pot of sanctions, and the West cannot impose additional sanctions on us beyond recycling existing measures, which primarily have psychological impacts but bring no real change."
While formal US sanctions target Iran’s oil exports and international banking, the incoming Trump administration could significantly ramp up enforcement—a step the outgoing Biden administration avoided in hopes of negotiating over Iran's nuclear program.
Currently, Iran ships over one million barrels of crude oil to small Chinese refineries, bypassing US-imposed third-party sanctions. Despite steep discounts, these exports provide Tehran with critical funds to address its pressing needs. If the Trump administration succeeds in curbing these shipments, Iran’s already fragile economy could face severe consequences.
The Iranian lawmaker emphasized the Islamic Republic’s need for establishing deterrence against Israeli or other military attacks and dismissed the risk of an effective Western response. "If we produce a nuclear bomb, the resulting tension will last no more than six months. Western countries will object to why we developed nuclear weapons, and we can respond by pointing out that they have sanctioned us enough already and have no new sanctions left to impose.”
Ardestani downplayed the likelihood of a Western military response if Iran were to develop nuclear weapons, claiming that the country already possesses sufficient deterrence to prevent such an attack. “Claims about Western military threats against Iran seem unlikely to materialize. Iran already enjoys a high level of military deterrence, making it improbable for Western countries to wage war against us."
However, this stance appears to contradict his own assertion that Tehran requires nuclear weapons to strengthen its deterrence against potential military strikes.
Earlier, Ali Larijani, a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, suggested that the United States should compensate Iran for damages as a condition for Tehran to abandon nuclear weapons development.
Since March 2024, ambiguous statements from Islamic Republic officials regarding moving toward nuclear weapons development have increased. In May, Kamal Kharrazi, Khamenei's international affairs advisor and head of his Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, warned about the Islamic Republic's potential shift toward building nuclear weapons.
In October, 39 members of Iran’s parliament sent a letter to the Supreme National Security Council, calling for a change in the Islamic Republic’s defense doctrine to include nuclear weapons development.
In contrast to these statements, officials from Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration, including Pezeshkian himself, have positioned themselves as proponents of diplomacy, advocating for de-escalation and citing the Supreme Leader’s fatwa against nuclear weapons as justification for their stance.
Larijani's new demand for compensation and Ardestani’s threat to build nuclear weapons come as Tehran's regional influence faces significant setbacks, with Hamas’s military infrastructure largely destroyed, Hezbollah under relentless Israeli attacks in Lebanon, and key militant leaders, including Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, killed.
Iran condemned the move and ordered the activation of advanced centrifuges in response.
The resolution, backed by Western nations including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (E3), follows months of heightened tensions over Iran’s uranium enrichment.
It cites ongoing violations of a 2015 international deal called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with Tehran now holding a stockpile of enriched uranium more than 32 times the limit under the agreement.
Nineteen countries voted in favor and three - China, Russia and Burkina Faso - against, with 12 abstaining during the quarterly meeting of the Board of Governors.
Iran bashed the resolution, saying it lacked the support of nearly half of the IAEA's member states and was pushed through by the United States and the three European sponsors to advance their political agendas.
Referring to a recent visit to Tehran by IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, Iran's foreign ministry said on X: "This politicized, unrealistic, and destructive approach undermines the positive atmosphere created and the understandings that have resulted from it."
The statement added that Iran was activating advanced centrifuges in retaliation but that the country's nuclear program would remain peaceful.
The resolution follows a similar IAEA rebuke in June calling on Iran to step up cooperation with the watchdog and reverse its recent barring of inspectors despite concerns Tehran would respond by boosting its activities.
E3 flags nuclear escalation
In a joint statement delivered to the IAEA board, France, Germany, and the UK expressed alarm over Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, a level well beyond civilian use and close to weapons-grade.
“Iran now has well over four IAEA significant quantities of uranium enriched up to 60%, the approximate amount of nuclear material from which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive device cannot be excluded,” The E3 said.
The statement said that over the past five months, Iran had installed six additional cascades of advanced centrifuges at its Natanz facility, significantly increasing its enrichment capacity.
It also criticized Iran’s continued restrictions on IAEA inspectors, including the de-designation, or revocation of accreditation, of experienced personnel which has impeded the Agency’s ability to verify Tehran’s claims of peaceful intentions.
Iran responds with warnings
Iranian officials had previously dismissed the resolution, accusing the E3 and their allies of undermining recent diplomatic efforts. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his French counterpart on Wednesday that the move complicates matters and contradicted the "positive atmosphere created between Iran and the IAEA.”
Tehran had recently proposed halting its enrichment of uranium to 60% but only after accumulating a stockpile of 185 kilograms. While this offer was mentioned in Grossi’s latest report, Western diplomats dismissed it as insufficient, noting that the material could easily be further enriched for weapons purposes.
Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes, a claim met with skepticism by Western powers citing Iran’s lack of transparency and history of non-compliance.
Long-running disputes
The IAEA resolution also addressed unresolved issues, including the presence of unexplained uranium traces at undeclared sites and limited access for inspectors to critical facilities. Grossi’s recent trip to Tehran aimed to persuade Iranian leaders to improve cooperation and return to broader negotiations.
The resolution is seen as a step toward potentially referring Iran’s nuclear dossier back to the UN Security Council, where Western nations could trigger a so -called snapback mechanism to reinstate international sanctions lifted under the JCPOA.