Iran's nuclear programme

Iran describes its nuclear program in a framework of sovereign right and lawful deterrence. Enrichment activity at Natanz and Fordow is characterised as a "peaceful civilian nuclear program" and an exercise of Iran's rights as an "NPT signatory" under "Article IV". The supreme leader's standing "fatwa against nuclear weapons" is invoked as the religious-juridical foundation — nuclear weapons are forbidden under Iranian Islamic doctrine, and the program is therefore civilian by definition. Progressive non-compliance with JCPOA limits is framed as legitimate response to the "American withdrawal" of 2018 and the "snapback" of sanctions; "we honored the deal" is the standing claim. The Israeli campaign of "sabotage", "assassinations of scientists", and plant accidents is termed "aggression" and "state terrorism". American "maximum pressure" is "collective punishment" of the Iranian people; deeper enrichment is the proportionate "deterrence hedge" against credible US-Israeli threats, with Iraq and Libya as cautionary cases of regimes that abandoned deterrence and were destroyed. The narrative prescribes continued enrichment as leverage, demands sanctions relief and US security guarantee as preconditions for any new agreement, and rejects all frameworks that would deny Iran the right to a complete nuclear fuel cycle.