TEHRAN, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Iran is ready to return to its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, the senior advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader said Monday, official IRNA news agency reported.
"Today, we have necessary nuclear capability, but we do not intend to produce a bomb ... (as) we consider the production of (nuclear) bombs forbidden on the basis of our (religious) beliefs," Kamal Kharazi said at the third Tehran Dialogue Forum.
"And from a strategic point of view, we do not consider it a path-breaker because if Iran moves toward nuclear weapons, a nuclear race will begin in the region," the former foreign minister added.
Possessing a nuclear weapon is not necessarily a component of security, but "having nuclear technology is a deterrent and shows our ability," he noted.
Kharazi emphasized that Iran is ready to return to its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), when many relevant problems have been solved so far.
The only remaining issue is about safeguards, which will be hopefully resolved during the upcoming visit of the experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency to Tehran, he said.
Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country. The United States, however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Iran, prompting the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments under the deal. ■
