Iran needs to develop a nuclear weapon to have chance at survival, expert claims

If Iran wants to survive, it needs to develop a nuclear weapon, Prof. Eyal Zisser, a Middle East expert from Tel Aviv University, said in an interview on 103FM on Monday.“There was a fatwa by the Supreme Leader, [Ali] Khamenei, according to which it was forbidden to produce an atomic bomb. In the previous decade there was an internal debate over this issue, and they argued that the Supreme Leader should change the religious ruling,” Zisser said, adding that while many believe the fatwa may have been a cover, the ruling did indeed exist.“Now that he is gone, his rulings are no longer binding, and he has a successor. We know that he is also more extreme, wants to take revenge for his dead father, and is also influenced by the Revolutionary Guards. I assume that if there is an internal debate in Iran, then this is part of the message saying that now this is not under the table and there is not even a religious ruling, but rather official policy.”Zisser noted that Tehran has learned from other regimes, as leaders who gave up their nuclear ambitions, such as Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein, lacked any deterrent to keep them from being killed.“By contrast, there is the ruler of North Korea who has a nuclear bomb, and that man is immune,” he said.According to him, the conclusion Iran would draw is completely clear. “The message of the Iranian regime from what it went through and what happened over the past year, two times when it was attacked by Israel and the United States, is a clear message: if Iran wants to survive, it needs a nuclear weapon. That is the logical move, and I assume the Supreme Leader's fatwas will be in line with that,” he said.Should the US have kept Obama's nuclear deal?Regarding the contacts with the United States and the possibility of a new agreement, Zisser pointed to the gap between the two sides' approaches. “There is one side that signals indifference and a sense of victory. And there is the other side, the American side, that signals an eagerness that is simply impossible to describe in an international relationship, to reach an agreement at any price,” he said.“I assume that in the end this is in Iran's interest. The agreement they are being offered, why not? It will say that it is not going toward nuclear weapons at the declaratory level.”Zisser also addressed criticism of the US withdrawing from the original nuclear agreement, saying that he believes it may have been better to stick to former president Barack Obama's nuclear deal, “if only because today no one takes seriously the idea that the United States might attack Iran. What are you threatening Iran with today?”