Iran says parliament is preparing bill to leave nuclear non-proliferation treaty

Iranian parliamentarians are preparing a bill that could push Tehran toward exiting the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the foreign ministry said on Monday, while reiterating Tehran's official stance against developing nuclear weapons.

"In light of recent developments, we will take an appropriate decision. Government has to enforce parliament bills but such a proposal is just being prepared and we will coordinate in the later stages with parliament," the ministry's spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, when asked at a press conference about Tehran potentially leaving the NPT.

The NPT, which Iran ratified in 1970, guarantees countries the right to pursue civilian nuclear power in return for requiring them to forego atomic weapons and cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

Israel began bombing Iran last week, saying Tehran was on the verge of building a nuclear bomb. Iran has always said its nuclear programme is peaceful, although the IAEA declared last week that Tehran was in violation of its NPT obligations.

President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated on Monday that nuclear weapons were against a religious edict by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran's state media said that no decision on quitting the NPT had yet been made by parliament, while a parliamentarian said that the proposal was at the initial stages of the legal process.

Baghaei said that developments such as Israel's attack "naturally affect the strategic decisions of the state," noting that Israel's attack had followed the IAEA resolution, which he suggested was to blame.

"Those voting for the resolution prepared the ground for the attack," Baghaei said.

Israel, which never joined the NPT, is widely assumed by regional governments to possess nuclear weapons, although it does not confirm or deny this.

"The Zionist regime is the only possessor of weapons of mass destruction in the region," Baghaei said.