(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
When you lay seige to a nation, making wild accusations about their intent to build and use nuclear weapons (all without providing the slightest evidence, even admitting that none of it is true!), you should listen to what the victim has to say on the subject before threatening them with nuclear annihilation. I’m pretty sure Obama will NOT be supplying a point-by-point rebuttal.
Anyway, Khameini addresses some key issues on the nukyoolar question:
The Supreme Leader’s View of Nuclear Energy
Good and evil use of knowledge
If advanced knowledge were at the disposal of a perfect and moral nation, it would be a source of blessings. If modern weapons were at the disposal of a wise and perfect nation, they would not pose any dangers. The situation will always be like this. They produce atomic bombs – just as what the Americans did at the end of the Second World War and the tragedy that they caused for the people of Japan. Similarly, the nuclear disaster in one of the Soviet Union’s nuclear power plants led to the death of a large number of people. If something bad comes out of nuclear technology, it is all because of the unrestrained power of the superpowers. If the power of the arrogant US government is restricted in the world, nuclear threats will decrease automatically.
The word atom is associated with the progress of human knowledge, but unfortunately it is equally associated with the most hideous event in history and the greatest genocide and misuse of the scientific achievements of humanity. Although many countries have taken action to manufacture and stockpile nuclear weapons – which in itself can be considered a preface to committing crimes and is a serious threat to global peace – there is only one government that has committed a nuclear crime so far. Only the government of the United States of America has waged an atomic war against the oppressed people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an unfair and inhumane war.
(more below)
Knowledge minus ethics
Today the reason why the advanced knowledge of western civilization is not capable of saving humanity is that it is not accompanied by human values. It is important to combine knowledge and human feelings. This combination is a necessity everywhere. Wherever there is knowledge but feelings, ethics, spirituality and human conscience are absent, human beings will not benefit from that knowledge. In the absence of spirituality and ethics, knowledge would turn into atomic bombs and would plague the lives of innocent people. It would turn into military weapons and would target civilians in Lebanon, Palestine and other parts of the world. This kind of knowledge would turn into chemical weapons and would be used in Halabcheh and other parts of the world to annihilate women, children and men – to destroy human beings and animals alike. Where did these weapons come from? These lethal weapons were produced by scientific centers of European countries. They were the ones who produced these chemical materials and gave them to a regime that was not wise enough.
Today weapons and various types of scientific products have not been able to bring about prosperity for humanity, and it is impossible for such things to bring about this prosperity. Such products and weapons have not been able to help families achieve happiness. They have not been able to help women, children and men to enjoy their lives. This is because such products are not accompanied by ethics and spirituality.
The true meaning of progress
Love for spirituality and a close relationship with God are the most important factor that guarantees genuine progress for nations. Otherwise, every achievement that is commonly known as advances in the modern world may be used for the wrong purposes. That is to say, a country may be moral and disciplined in terms of its social behaviors. It may acquire knowledge and wealth as well, but at the same time it may use the knowledge, wealth and discipline of its people to annihilate another nation. This is wrong. According to our logic, it is not right for a country to use its knowledge to produce such weapons as nuclear bombs which annihilate armed soldiers, innocent civilians, children, babies and oppressed people indiscriminately once they are dropped somewhere.
The position of nuclear technology
Nuclear sciences and the study of atoms are one of the greatest human achievements which can and should be at the service of the wellbeing of nations across the world as well as the growth and development of all human societies. The applications of nuclear sciences cover a wide range of medical and industrial needs as well as energy requirements, each of which has considerable importance. For this reason, it can be said that nuclear technology has gained a prominent position in economic life. And with the passage of time and the rise in industrial and medical needs and energy requirements, its importance will continue growing, and the efforts to achieve and utilize nuclear energy will increase accordingly. Just like other nations of the world, Middle Eastern nations that are thirsty for peace, security, and progress have the right to guarantee their economic position as well as a superior position for their future generations through utilizing this technology. One of the goals behind creating doubts about the peaceful nuclear programs of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to preventing the nations of the region from paying serious attention to this natural and valuable right.
Indigenous technology
Much to the disappointment of the enemies, the Islamic Republic of Iran achieved nuclear technology on its own. Iran has been a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and it has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. According to the regulations, they were supposed to provide Iran with certain kinds of help. Influential Zionists and Americans told the world not to help Iran. Talented Iranian youth and scientists managed to achieve this technology gradually without the help of others. Nuclear technology is different from building atomic bombs. Achieving nuclear technology constitutes scientific growth in a field that offers many different advantages. Those who are after building an atomic bomb can achieve their goal by following a certain branch of nuclear technology. Iran is not after an atomic bomb, and it is even opposed to possession of chemical weapons. Even when Iraq used chemical weapons against Iran, we did not try to manufacture chemical weapons. Such things are not in line with the principles of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The unhealthy nuclear race
The Chinese have made great scientific advances. But one should also take into consideration the fact that they had nothing in the year 1948 – when the new communist China was established. However, the Soviet Union – which had a government with a more established background in terms of ideology and scientific and technological advances – provided China with whatever they had at their disposal. This was during the Stalin era. The existence of a great country like China – which did not have the same population as today but was a vast and highly populated country anyway – next to the Soviet Union and at the heart of Asia was very valuable for the communist Soviet Union of those days. Therefore, they provided China with whatever they needed. They even provided them with nuclear energy. But our youth achieved nuclear energy through their own efforts. This is while the Chinese received nuclear energy as a gift from the Soviet Union. They even provided North Korea with nuclear technology – both China and Russia did. If you take a look, you will see that the achievements made by countries like China were all due to the exceptional support which they received from other countries. The same is true of India as well – of course in other aspects. The bitter dispute that was caused between China and Russia – there was a bitter dispute between these two communist countries for several years after the Stalin era, like the dispute between the east and the west, and maybe a little more serious than that – caused the Russians to support India which was a neighboring country to China. For their part, the Chinese started to support Pakistan which was a rival for India. This indicates that political factors played a role in the selection of allies. On the one hand, China provided Pakistan with nuclear technology, and on the other hand, Russia provided India with nuclear energy and helped it make other sorts of accomplishments. That is to say, both India and Pakistan owe their achievements to other countries.
The nuclear uproar
Today they try to create uproar about Iran’s nuclear activities. Regarding nuclear energy, what is the position of the world on Iran? In particular, what is the position of Asian, Middle Eastern and Islamic countries in this regard? The Americans keep saying that the world is opposed to Iran’s enrichment activities. No, you do not know the world. The peoples of the world and even their governments are all saying that global powers should not have a monopoly on nuclear energy, and they sincerely praise the Iranian nation for treading this path in a brave and determined manner. For example, the vast majority of the countries of the world – including more than one hundred members of the Non-Aligned Movement, about one hundred countries which had attended the Islamic conference and the Non-Aligned summit and a number of other organizations – have expressed their support for this cause. Treading its glorious path, the Iranian nation will continually advance and develop its ideas – which have challenged and questioned certain illusions of the western world – in a powerful, enthusiastic and tireless way, and it will offer them to the world of Islam and to Muslim nations as a spiritual gift. And the camp of arrogance has to retreat.
The Zionists who have occupied the Palestinian lands and the US government which bears innumerable grudges against the Islamic Republic and is prepared to use every possible means to achieve its goals – these two promoted a false idea in the world about Iran. They said that Iran is after a nuclear bomb. In order to achieve their goal, they made public opinion and many governments sensitive to this issue. After creating uproar, they tried to convince the world that Iran’s nuclear activities had caused widespread fear in the world.
The Islamic Republic allowed them to inspect Iran’s enrichment activities. They came to our country to inspect our enrichment activities, and they were allowed to go and inspect wherever they suspected enrichment activities so that they understand that the propaganda broadcast by the Zionists is a lie.
Material and spiritual power
In order to defend its lofty ideals, any nation needs to strengthen itself and increase its power. Of course power defined by religion is quite different from power seen from a material perspective. From a material viewpoint, power lies in military force, advanced and sophisticated equipment and weapons of mass destruction like nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. But real power lies in those people who strive to restore their rights and accomplish their noble ideals, those who are ready to make every kind of sacrifice to achieve their goals. Those trying to promote righteousness and justice never use power in a brutal and unjust manner. They never humiliate or oppress others or act in an arrogant way. They never attack other nations’ territories with an eye to plundering their national wealth and natural resources. However, those relying on material power have no respect for the rights of others or for moral and spiritual values, as they follow the law of the jungle. They think they are the criterion for truth only because they are powerful, and this is wrong. This is a faulty equation.
The urgent need to destroy weapons of mass destruction
After the detonation of the earliest nuclear weapons by the US government in Hiroshima and Nagasaki created a human disaster of unprecedented proportions in history and posed a great threat to human security, the global community reached a unanimous agreement that it is necessary to completely destroy such weapons. The use of nuclear weapons resulted not only in large-scale killings and destruction, but also in indiscriminate massacre of people – military members and civilians, young and old, men and women. And its anti-human effects went beyond political and geographic borders, even inflicting irreparable harm on future generations. Therefore, using or even threatening to use such weapons is considered a serious violation of the most basic humanitarian rules and is a clear manifestation of war crimes.
The threat to global peace
From a military and security perspective, after certain powers were armed with this anti-human weapon, there remained no doubt that victory in a nuclear war would be impossible and that engagement in such a war would be an unwise and anti-human act. However, despite these obvious ethical, intellectual, human, and even military realities, the strong and repeated urge by the global community to dispose of these weapons has been ignored by a small number of governments who have built their illusory security on global insecurity.
The insistence of these governments on the possession and proliferation of nuclear weapons as well as increasing their destructive power – which are useless except for intimidation, massacre and a false sense of security based on pre-emptive power resulting from guaranteed annihilation of everyone – has led to an enduring nuclear nightmare in the world. Innumerable human and economic resources have been used in this irrational competition to give the superpowers the imaginary power to annihilate their rivals as well as other inhabitants of the world more than a thousand times. And it is due to this reason that this strategy has been known as “Mutually Assured Destruction” or MAD.
In recent years, a number of governments that possess nuclear weapons have even gone beyond the pre-emptive strategy based on “Mutually Assured Destruction” in dealing with other nuclear powers, to the extent that in their nuclear policies they insist on maintaining the nuclear option even if they are faced with conventional threats from countries violating the NPT. This is while the greatest violators of the NPT are the powers that have reneged on their obligation to dispose of nuclear weapons mentioned in Article 6 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. These powers have even surpassed other countries with respect to promoting nuclear weapons in the world. By providing the Zionist regime with nuclear weapons and supporting its policies, these powers play a direct role in proliferating nuclear weapons which is against the obligations they have undertaken according to Article 1 of the NPT. These countries, headed by the bullying and aggressive US regime, have posed a serious threat to the Middle East region and the world.
Iran’s logic against the pressure exerted by the arrogant powers
The Americans should know that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not a warmonger. Acting on the basis of its principles, the Islamic Republic is opposed to warmongering. Iran does not welcome war. Everybody should know this. This is the position that all officials of the Islamic Republic unanimously agree on. All government officials of the Islamic Republic consider avoidance of war as their responsibility. Islamic principles require Iran to present a message of friendship, peace, love, security and tranquility. This is because the Iranian nation has something to say. Those do not have anything to say would naturally create uproar so that nobody can listen. It is bullying people who would want to create uproar, but those who have logical reasons to present would want a peaceful atmosphere in which they can present their logical reasons.
The capitalist and colonialist camp is using all its economic power and media networks to exert pressure on our nation in the hope that it will force the Iranian nation to retreat and to surrender. Not only do they want us to give up our nuclear rights – the nuclear energy is one of the rights of the Iranian nation – but they also want our nation to give up its right to grandeur, independence, free decisions and scientific progress. The Iranian nation is now on the right path towards scientific and technological progress and is determined to make up for two centuries of backwardness under evil despotic governments. Our enemies are alarmed and do not want our nation – which is located in a strategic part of the world – to achieve these accomplishments. They do not want the Iranian nation to be known as the standard-bearer of Islam. That is the reason why they exert pressure on us, but the Iranian nation is standing firm. The Americans have learnt through experience that nuclear weapons and other such things are highly ineffective tools for confronting peoples and their willpower. Such weapons can intimidate governments and armies, but they can never be used to intimidate peoples.
National demands
The morale of the Iranian nation is high. The nuclear slogan that is shouted in various parts of the country [“Nuclear Energy Is Our Indisputable Right”] is not a simple and ordinary issue. There are many nations which do not know what nuclear energy is or what their indisputable rights are. Even if they know their rights, they cannot take a step towards claiming their rights. But the Iranian nation knows that nuclear energy is a significant indicator of progress in the modern world and that if a nation lacks this technology, it is in great trouble. The Iranian nation also knows that nuclear energy is its indisputable right. They shout this slogan and sincerely demand nuclear energy from their government officials. The Iranian people know that they have the capability to claim this indisputable right without begging others to give it to them. This is a very important point. This shows the morale and hope of the Iranian nation.
Today other nations throughout the world have focused their attention on the Iranian nation. They are inspired and motivated by our nation. Today the anti-hegemony slogans of the Iranian nation have spread to all parts of the Muslim world. If you travel to different Muslim countries, you will notice that their people have a high opinion of your slogans, motives and aspirations regardless of their governments. They admire our slogans against oppression, the octopus-like Zionist network and hegemony. They admire our slogans shouted in support of the oppressed and the Palestinian nation. This is what Muslim nations think. This points to the spread of the Islamic Revolution. As you can see, even our nation’s slogans regarding nuclear energy – the fact that the Iranian nation resisted the pressures by the enemies and claimed its right – have been reflected in the Islamic world in a way that Muslim and Arab countries are declaring that nuclear energy has turned into a public demand in all Arab countries.
Violation of legitimate rights
Violation of rights by the US in this region is not limited to some isolated cases. In the case of our own country, they denied so many realities regarding our nuclear program, which has been hotly debated during the past few years. They twisted the truth beyond recognition and spread many lies. They made many efforts to oppose what our nation wanted – a nation that was trying to secure its legitimate right, an achievement gained though its own efforts. Our nation says that it seeks to achieve nuclear technology and that it seeks to develop the capability to use nuclear energy for peaceful civilian purposes. They say that the Iranian nation is trying to develop a nuclear bomb. Why do they tell these lies? Why do they say such things and make the Iranian nation detest them? They have been doing these things during the past years. On numerous occasions, the Iranian people and government officials have announced that they do not seek to develop nuclear weapons and that nuclear weapons have no place among the needs of the nation and the military system of the country. We believe that using nuclear weapons is haraam and prohibited and that it is everybody’s duty to make efforts to protect humanity against this great disaster. We believe that besides nuclear weapons, other types of weapons of mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons also pose a serious threat to humanity. The Iranian nation which is itself a victim of chemical weapons feels more than any other nation the danger that is caused by the production and stockpiling of such weapons and is prepared to make use of all its facilities to counter such threats.
The interesting point is that currently the only nuclear criminal in the world is falsely claiming to fight proliferation of nuclear weapons. This is while there is no doubt that it has not taken any serious measures in this regard, and it will never do so. If America’s claims of fighting proliferation of nuclear weapons were not false, would the Zionist regime be able to turn the occupied Palestinian lands into an arsenal where a huge number of nuclear weapons are stored while refusing to respect international regulations in this regard, especially the NPT?
Nuclear weapons, not necessary for Iran
They mix up nuclear technology with development of nuclear weapons. The truth is different from what they say. Nuclear technology and nuclear weapons are two different things which are not closely related to one another. Nuclear weapons are based on uranium that is enriched above 90 percent through the use of complex technologies. Only those who have the motivation will go after nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic of Iran does not have this motivation, and it has never been after nuclear weapons. Iran does not need a nuclear bomb. Iran has overcome its enemies so far without depending on nuclear weapons. The Iranian nation has continually defeated America for several years. Is this not true? Did Iran defeat America relying on its nuclear weapons or did it defeat America relying on its determination, willpower, faith, awareness and unity? Iran knew what it wanted, and it knew how to get it. Iran moved in this direction and was not intimidated by the threats of other people. This was how Iran overcame its enemy. It did not use nuclear weapons to overcome its enemy. Did the Soviet Union not have atomic bombs? Its atomic bombs were probably more than the atomic bombs of America, yet it was defeated. Defeat and victory in important areas are not determined by such things.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has presented a model to the world of Islam: a model for religious democracy, a model for independence and national glory. Today the world of Islam has turned against America, and nations of the world are shouting “Death to America”. Which nation first shouted this slogan? Apart from the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation, was there anybody else who used to shout this slogan? Today everybody is shouting this slogan. Islamic Iran did not make progress relying on an atomic bomb. It is not possible to win memorable and historic victories by relying on such weapons. Does the Zionist regime not have an atomic bomb? It is estimated that the Zionist regime has stockpiled 200-300 nuclear warheads. But for many years the Zionist regime has been powerless against people who do not even have guns, against people whose only weapons are rocks. Of course the rocks that they throw are accompanied by willpower and faith. Iran is not after a nuclear bomb. Why would Iran want a nuclear bomb? Moreover, when an atomic bomb is detonated, it does not just kill enemies. Rather, it kills innocent people as well, and this goes against Islamic beliefs and the principles of the Islamic Republic of Iran. An atomic bomb does not discriminate between good and bad people, and it is not something that the Islamic Republic would use. The Islamic Republic is relying on something that is not affected by bombs, foreign invasions and other such things. Such things only strengthen what the Islamic republic is relying on. The Islamic republic is relying on the people.