Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), boasted on Tuesday that Iran has “reached the level of developed countries in nuclear science and technology.” Eslami praised the “scientific talent, creativity, and managerial capacity” that made this putative leap forward in nuclear technology possible, and said attacks by Israel and the United States would not be able to halt Iran’s relentless nuclear progress. In fact, Eslami claimed the war that began in February only made Iran’s nuclear program stronger because foreign suppliers were unwilling or unable to help repair the damage inflicted by Israeli and U.S. airstrikes, so the AEOI was forced to “develop and manufacture domestic alternatives.”
The AEOI chief repeated the Iranian regime’s standard line that it seeks nuclear power only for peaceful purposes, including “improving lives, strengthening national capabilities, and advancing development.” At the same time Eslami was boasting of Iran’s amazing strides in ostensibly peaceful nuclear technology, former Iranian foreign minister and vice president Mohammad Javad Zarif was getting in trouble with regime “hardliners” by wondering if obtaining nuclear weapons — the goal Iran keeps insisting it does not have — was worth all of the trouble.
