The exterior of Iran's nuclear power plant in Bushehr. Photo: Wikicommons

A commander of Iran’s widely feared Basij paramilitary corps has inadvertently confessed that the Tehran regime aims to build up an arsenal of nuclear and chemical weapons.

Abdul Reza Dashti, the head Basij commander in Bushehr – a city on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast that contains the Bushehr nuclear power plant, one of the regime’s key installations – had been addressing the fight against “foreign influences” in Iran when he made the admission, according to a report by the official news agency IRNA.

“The battle against satellite TV and social networks on the Internet is more important than the effort of achieving chemical and atomic weapons,” Dashti is reported to have said, thereby admitting that there is indeed an effort to weaponize a program that the regime continues to insist is peaceful in intent.

Dashti’s statement came as the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran announced that two new nuclear power plants are being constructed in the Bushehr area. The plants will be built with Russian assistance, under the terms of a contract signed between Tehran and Moscow in March. “We consider Russia a highly important neighbor and we hope that based on the words of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, powerful Russia beside independent Iran can be important allies for each other,” Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi declared.

In November, Basij forces in Bushehr held two days of drills to demonstrate their “combat and defense” capabilities, according to Colonel Yassin Ekba of the Prophet Muhammed Corps. Similar drills were carried out by the Basij in six other provinces of the country in February of this year.

“These maneuvers helped a lot to increasing the preparedness of the popular Basij forces,” Abdolamir Mohtashami, another Basij commander, said at the time.