Faced with the possibility of Iranian nuclear negotiations with President Trump’s second administration, Trump reiterated his position on February 4, 2025 that Iran must not have nuclear weapons. [1] In response, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Iranian Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif – a former foreign minister and leader of nuclear talks with the Obama administration – joined forces to once again expose the lie about Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s non-existent fatwa, which supposedly guarantees that Iran cannot produce or obtain nuclear weapons.
The Iranian regime continues to lie about the existence of the fatwa
Foreign Minister Araghchi stressed in his February 5 response to President Trump that “if the central issue is that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons, this is possible. It is not a problem… Iran’s position on nuclear weapons is very clear. There is also a fatwa from the Supreme Leader that makes it clear to all of us what the mission is.”[2]
Several days later, on February 9, Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a media interview: “The use of missiles was possible for us in accordance with the rules of war and our religious approach, and this has shown that we can do it. The issue of nuclear weapons is completely different from the [issue of] missiles, and the leader’s [Khamenei] fatwa has closed this discussion permanently.”[3]
The non-existent nuclear fatwa: a supposed religious guarantee that Iran will not develop nuclear weapons
The Iranian regime is doubling down on its lies about the existence of a fatwa banning nuclear weapons, purportedly issued by Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei. Over the years, no such fatwa ever appeared on either of Khamenei’s two fatwa websites, and although the fatwa was said to have been issued on several different dates and in a variety of different versions, no one has ever seen it (see below for MEMRI’s reporting over the years on this nonexistent fatwa).
During the 3-2002 nuclear negotiations between Iran and the G-2006 (the United Kingdom, France and Germany), Iran put forward its position that a fatwa by Khamenei prohibits nuclear weapons and that this fatwa is legally more binding than any constitutional ban or parliamentary legislation, as it could be in any other country. Iran also claimed that it is far more binding than the regime of inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the G-3 demanded.
In a May 2012 interview, Hassan Rouhani, the soon-to-be president of Iran who had headed Iran's nuclear negotiating team, said that he was the one who proposed claiming that Khamenei had issued this fatwa in a Friday sermon in November 2004 (see, for example, Inquiry & Analysis No. 1022: Iran's official version of Khamenei's alleged anti-nuclear fatwa is a lie , October 3, 2013). Again, this alleged fatwa could never be found on Khamenei’s fatwa websites, either in November 2004 or at any other time. Rouhani’s proposal, as he testified, was to present this alleged fatwa to the Europeans as a guarantee that Iran would not attempt to produce nuclear weapons.
However, Iran's position was not accepted by the three EU countries in the negotiations, as its demand to be given the purported fatwa in the original was rejected. All Iran provided was a report from an Iranian news agency purporting to have reported on the fatwa (see MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 825: Resumption of Iran-West Nuclear Talks – Part II: Tehran Tries to Fool President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton with Non-Existent Anti-Nuclear Weapons Fatwa by Supreme Leader Khamenei, April 19, 2012).
The Obama administration, which replaced the G-3 in conducting nuclear negotiations with Iran, accepted Iran's position that this fatwa really existed and effectively served as an alternative to invasive IAEA oversight. The administration promoted the fatwa as binding, even though it never saw it. [4] (See Inquiry & Analysis 1080: US Secretary of State Kerry in new and unprecedented statement: 'President Obama and I are extremely grateful that [Iranian Supreme Leader [Khamenei] has issued a [non-existent] fatwa' banning nuclear weapons ', March 31, 2014, and Special Dispatch No. 5461: President Obama backs lie about Khamenei's fatwa against nuclear weapons , September 29, 2013, as well as the other MEMRI reports on the non-existent fatwa listed below).
MEMRI reports on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's non-existent fatwa
Below are MEMRI reports on the non-existent fatwa published over the years:
Publication of a compilation of the latest fatwas of Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei (without the alleged fatwa on the nuclear bomb), August 13, 2013
President Obama backs lie about Khamenei's fatwa against nuclear weapons, September 29, 2013
Iran's official version of Khamenei's alleged anti-nuclear weapons fatwa is a lie , October 3, 2013.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in an article published in a Saudi newspaper: Avoiding confrontation and hostility, we will be diligent in pursuing our supreme interests, December 23, 2013
The Iranian regime continues its lies and fabrications about the non-existent fatwa of Supreme Leader Khamenei banning nuclear weapons , April 6, 2015
LKhamenei's 'nuclear fatwa', once again. MEMRI Daily Report.
Research and analysis series no. 1784: On the eve of the resumption of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran, Iranian calls for Iran to possess nuclear weapons are being heard again , September 5, 2024.
[1] Whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-restores-maximum-pressure-on-iran, February 4, 2025.
[2] ISNA (Iran), February 5, 2025.
[3] Asr-e Iran (Iran), February 9, 2025.
[4] It should be noted that in 2012, the US media reported that the Obama administration was using this non-existent fatwa as a justification for reviving nuclear negotiations with Iran. For example, on May 11, 2012 in The Washington Post, David Ignatius wrote that President Obama had sent a message to Khamenei, delivered in March 2012 by then-Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In the message, he stated that his, Khamenei’s, fatwa “banning nuclear weapons would be a good starting point for negotiations.” See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1458: Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif reiterates Iran's lie, promoted by the Obama administration, that Supreme Leader Khamenei issued a fatwa banning nuclear weapons; that fatwa never existed, May 31, 2019.
Source: MEMORY