TEHRAN — Iran may not remain a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) if the United States resumes its war against the country, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, warned in an interview with Iranian state television on Saturday night, according to TASS, Press TV and Iran International. “At some point, they may want to start a war, and it is unclear whether we will remain in the NPT after any future war,” Rezaei said, as quoted by TASS, adding that while Iran remains a party to the treaty it holds rights under it.

Rezaei confirmed that a debate is under way over whether Iran should keep its current nuclear doctrine if war breaks out again, but stressed that the government has taken no new decision. “No new decision has been made yet,” he said, according to Press TV. “Of course, the discussion is now whether, if another war breaks out, we want to maintain the same doctrine as before.” He said there was a popular demand for a change, but that the government had not yet made a new decision. In the same interview, Rezaei said he had reviewed the message from US Vice President JD Vance — the letter this site reported on October 29 — but had not yet sent a response, and described the American tone as completely changed, a positive sign, according to Newscord's account. He said the nuclear issue could only be addressed in later stages of negotiations, after the United States met Iran's demands, and that any future discussions must recognise Tehran's rights under the treaty.

Source: TASS, Press TV and Iran International, via Life News Agency, Oct 31

Lawmakers push in parliament

The remarks come as several Iranian lawmakers call for the country to leave the treaty. “Now that we have paid the heavy costs of war and sanctions, it is time for the Iranian nation to withdraw from the NPT treaty and change the nuclear doctrine,” legislator Mahmoud Nabavian wrote on X on Saturday, Al Jazeera reported. Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said 10 proposals to withdraw from the treaty had been registered and that withdrawal was under consideration, according to the Fars news agency; earlier this month he said various lawmakers had prepared more than 10 bills on the issue and that many parliamentarians had signed them, the Iranian outlet WANA reported on October 13.

One of the proposals is a so-called triple-urgency bill for Iran's withdrawal from the NPT and its Additional Protocol, drafted by lawmaker Hosseinali Haji-Deligani and signed by 48 lawmakers, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported. On Friday, Alireza Salimi, a member of parliament's presiding board, said in a post on X that a withdrawal bill had been drafted and was before parliament, and that withdrawal was Iran's right under the treaty, citing Articles IV and X, Iran International reported; Article X allows a member state to withdraw by giving three months' notice. On October 24, the hardline Paydari Front urged parliament and the Supreme National Security Council to begin the withdrawal process, Iran International reported. Tehran's interim Friday prayer leader, Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari, described a review of Iran's nuclear doctrine as a “national demand” in his Friday sermon, state broadcaster IRIB reported, and deputy speaker Hamid-Reza Haji-Babaei described the demand for a doctrine change as the people's right, saying officials should examine it.

The proposals remain pending. None of the reports cited indicated that the government or the Supreme National Security Council had endorsed leaving the treaty, and any bill must first be formally accepted by parliament's presiding board before it can be debated. Al Jazeera noted that withdrawal from the NPT would not automatically mean Iran would build a nuclear weapon, and that officially Tehran's position of not seeking nuclear arms remains unchanged. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said separately on Saturday that Iran was reviewing proposals concerning its nuclear programme and that a delegation had travelled to Qatar for further consultations, Iran International reported.