A view of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility 250 km (155 miles) south of the Iranian capital Tehran, in this Maxar Technologies satellite image taken last week and obtained by Reuters on April 12, 2021. Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS

i24 News – A former member of the Islamic Republic’s parliament said in an interview with Iranian media on Sunday that Iran had always intended to build a nuclear bomb.

The atomic weapon would have been used as a “means of intimidation,” according to footage captured and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“When we started our nuclear activity, our objective was indeed to build a bomb,” former Iranian politician Ali Motahari revealed to ISCA News.

“There is no need to beat around the bush,” he added.

His statements contradict Iran’s insistence that Tehran never sought to build nuclear weapons — a claim rejected by Israel and Western intelligence services.

Motahari noted that the objective of building a bomb was pursued and supported by “the whole regime, or at least, by the people who started this activity.”

Asked if the people behind Iran’s nuclear program intended to use the bomb, Motahari replied, “No, we wanted to build it as a means of intimidation,” quoting a verse from the Quran: “Strike fear into the heart of the enemy of Allah.”

According to Motahari, Iran’s failure in this direction is because it did not keep its plans secret long enough.

According to the former parliamentarian, his remarks cannot affect the ongoing negotiations with the West on the Iranian nuclear program.

“No one notices what I say … I say all these things in my name,” he said, adding that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei currently opposes the idea of ​​building a bomb.

Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have stalled largely due to Iran’s demand that Washington withdraw the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization List.