Iran's Assembly of Experts said on Thursday that reviewing the country's withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), revising its defence doctrine and building what it called the necessary deterrence had become an "unavoidable necessity" and a national demand, in a statement carried by Iranian state broadcasters and news agencies.

The 88-member clerical body, which elects and oversees Iran's supreme leader, stopped short of announcing any withdrawal. Iran remains a party to the NPT, and no notice of withdrawal has been given. The statement instead asked officials, guided by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, to take up what it described as a public demand.

Source: Press TV

What the statement said

In its 10-point statement, published by the state broadcaster IRIB and the ISNA news agency, the Assembly said repeated threats by what it called the aggressor enemy, especially against Iran's nuclear knowledge, showed that there could be no hope in the international bodies responsible for the matter.

"Therefore, the review of the issue of withdrawal from the NPT, a revision of the country's defence doctrine, and the creation of the necessary deterrence have become an unavoidable necessity and have turned into a public and national demand," the statement said, according to the published text.

The Assembly also warned, according to summaries of the statement carried by Russia's TASS news agency, that any fresh attack on Iran would meet an immediate and effective response without geographic limits, and it called for a war-economy headquarters involving the three branches of government under the oversight of the supreme leader's office.

A review is not a withdrawal

The Assembly of Experts cannot itself take Iran out of the NPT. Iran signed the treaty in 1968 and ratified it in 1970. Leaving under Article X of the treaty requires three months' notice, and no such notice has been given. Any withdrawal would still require a decision by the country's leadership.

How this follows earlier warnings

Thursday's statement goes further than a warning issued earlier by Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei, who said on state television that Tehran might not remain in the NPT if the United States resumed its war against Iran, while stressing that no new decision had then been taken. The Assembly's language, by contrast, presents a review of withdrawal as a settled national demand rather than a conditional response.

Source: Clash Report

The statement landed in a week of rising pressure around Iran's nuclear programme. Iran has rejected a United States proposal on its enriched uranium, and its Revolutionary Guard leadership said this week that the country's missile development programme would continue despite threats and sanctions.

Background: a war that began on February 28

The Assembly of Experts elected Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader on March 8, after his father Ali Khamenei was killed in the United States and Israeli strikes that opened the war on February 28. Fighting and threats around the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil passes, have kept energy markets and Gulf governments on edge ever since.

For the lakhs of Punjabi and Indian workers living across the Gulf states, any step that raises the risk of a renewed wider war matters directly, through worker safety, flights and remittances as much as through oil prices.

What happens next

The next move rests with Iran's leadership, its security council and its parliament, where lawmakers have previously pushed bills on NPT withdrawal. If Tehran ever decided to leave the treaty, the three-month notice period would become a window for diplomacy, and for the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, whose safeguards inspections are tied to NPT membership.

For now, Thursday's development is a statement of intent from one of Iran's most powerful constitutional bodies, not a change in Iran's treaty status. Awaaz Punjab will report any formal notice, parliamentary vote or IAEA response as a separate development.