Iran May Withdraw from Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

DUBAI, June 16 — Iran’s parliament is preparing a bill on the country’s possible withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei said. According to him, the decision will be made taking into account recent events, but at this stage it is only a matter of developing an initiative.

“The government is obliged to implement the laws of parliament, but for now the proposal is at an early stage. We will coordinate with the deputies,” Baghaei said.

Iran signed the NPT in 1970, an agreement that guarantees access to peaceful nuclear energy on the condition that it renounces the creation of nuclear weapons and cooperates with the IAEA. Last week, the agency accused Tehran of violating the terms of the treaty.

Israel, which is not a party to the NPT, has launched airstrikes on Iran, claiming that it is approaching the creation of a nuclear bomb. Iran, however, insists that its program is exclusively peaceful. President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed that nuclear weapons are contrary to Ayatollah Khamenei's fatwa.

"It was the IAEA resolution that paved the way for the Israeli strike," Baghaei added.