Former Iranian Official Confesses to Nuclear Bomb Ambition: 'We Wanted Deterrence.

A resurfaced interview with a former Iranian official is causing significant alarm online. Ali Motahari, who served as deputy speaker from 2016 to 2019, admitted to Iran's nuclear ambitions. Speaking to ISCA News in 2022, he stated, "When we began our nuclear activity, our goal was indeed to build a bomb. There is no need to beat around the bush."

Motahari clarified that the intention was deterrence rather than immediate detonation. He referenced a Quranic verse about striking fear into enemies to justify this strategy. He suggested that since the start, they should have proceeded to the nuclear threshold, noting such a move "would not have been a bad thing."

The ambitious program failed because Iran could not maintain its secrecy. The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) leaked reports that alerted the international community. However, Motahari noted that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei considered nuclear weapons "forbidden." Khamenei died during US-Israeli strikes in Tehran on February 28.

These admissions have resurfaced during the current US-Israeli war in Iran. President Donald Trump stated that recent attacks target Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities. He described the regime and its proxies as a persistent, long-term global threat.

The video has ignited fierce debate among security experts and engineers. Analysts are questioning if these remarks confirm long-standing Western suspicions. Motahari claimed the pursuit of nuclear weapons was supported by "the whole regime, or at least, by the people who started this activity."

The history of these efforts includes the Amad Plan, exposed by the PMOI in 2003. Led by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the project aimed for underground tests by 2004. It involved creating a clandestine fuel cycle and five 10,000-ton TNT warheads. The project, which proceeded in secret, made considerable progress in just a few short years.

A 10-kiloton warhead carries about two-thirds the power of the Hiroshima bomb. The plan included refining foreign designs, conducting explosives testing, and performing machining experiments with surrogate materials. Scientists also worked to integrate these warheads with the Shahab-3 missile system via a process known as implosion.

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of America (JCPOA) established strict constraints on Iran’s nuclear program, capping uranium enrichment at 3.67 percent—a level significantly below weapons-grade—and limiting the number of centrifuges in operation under international monitoring. However, following a period of reduced compliance, Iran increased its enrichment levels to 60 percent. Nuclear experts identify this 60 percent threshold as a critical warning, as it represents the majority of the technical work required to produce weapons-grade material. This escalation led to Iran being classified as a "nuclear threshold state," a designation meaning the nation possesses the technology, materials, and expertise to develop a nuclear weapon on short notice.

On June 12, 2025, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) formally declared Iran in violation of its non-proliferation obligations. The following day, Israel conducted a military operation against Iran’s military and nuclear fuel cycle sites, resulting in substantial damage. The diplomatic situation deteriorated further in October 2025, when Iran officially terminated the JCPOA, nullifying all previous nuclear restrictions. This move removed formal limits on centrifuge counts and enrichment levels, allowing Iran to expand its nuclear infrastructure without international oversight.

In 2026, the conflict transitioned into direct military engagement as President Trump launched joint attacks against Iran alongside Israel. During a statement on March 2, the President outlined the administration's primary objectives: "Our objectives are clear. First, we're destroying Iran's missile capabilities… and their capacity to produce brand new ones, pretty good ones they make. Second, we're annihilating their navy… Third, we're ensuring that the world's number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon… And finally, we're ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund, and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.