As war rages, Iranian politicians push for exit from nuclear weapons treaty

Defence affairs - Def-Geopolitics

While US-Israeli attacks hit key infrastructure, hardliners demand withdrawal from Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Iranian politicians are pushing to exit the country from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as the United States and Israel ramp up their attacks to hit civilian nuclear sites, steel factories and a university.

It would be meaningless for Iran to remain a signatory to the international treaty as it “has had no benefit for us”, said Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for the national security commission of parliament, in a Friday night post on X.

Malek Shariati, a representative from Tehran, said that a priority piece of legislation has been uploaded in an online parliamentary portal and will be reviewed soon.

Politicians have not held any sessions since the start of the war on February 28.

According to Shariati, the legislation will withdraw Iran from the NPT, revoke a law that adopted nuclear restrictions linked with a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and “support a new international treaty with aligned countries [including Shanghai Cooperation Organization/BRICS] on developing peaceful nuclear technologies”.

Hardliners have previously demanded an NPT exit and a nuclear bomb in response to outside pressure.

If such a law is approved by the parliament, it would also have to be agreed by the Guardian Council – a powerful 12-member constitutional body, before being implemented by the government.

Iranian authorities continue to accuse the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of taking a politicised stance and being complicit in attacks against Iranian nuclear sites, charges the United Nations nuclear watchdog rejects.

Grossi told US broadcaster CBS News in an interview earlier this month that no war has the capability to totally destroy Iran’s nuclear programme, “unless it was nuclear war and you go for destruction unfathomable, which we hope will never be the case”.

Fada-Hossein Maleki, a member of the national security commission of Iran’s parliament, said on Saturday he believes that Grossi has acted as an “agitator” for months in order to please US President Donald Trump. He said the nuclear bomb comment “violates all international norms and constitutes a provocative act”.