Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi. Iran’s nuclear chief said that Israel does not pose a threat to the Islamic Republic because it is not a state. Photo: Wikipedia.

JNS.org – Iran’s nuclear chief said that Israel does not pose a threat to the Islamic Republic because it is not a state.

“We essentially do not see [Israel] as a state, therefore it’s not a threat to Iran,” the London-based news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeedquoted Ali Akbar Salehi, director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as saying in an interview published Monday.

Salehi was responding to a question about whether or not he thinks an Israeli-Iranian war could arise as a result of last year’s nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, an agreement that Israel staunchly opposes. Salehi was a major player in the nuclear negotiations that brought about the deal, which lifted about $150 billion in global sanctions on Iran.