Former Iranian officials urge government, parliament to initiate exit from NPT
Tehran - BORNA - In a comprehensive statement issued on Monday, the former officials declared that sustained membership in the treaty no longer serves Iran’s national interests, arguing that years of unprecedented transparency and voluntary compliance failed to yield security and were instead turned into instruments of external pressure, espionage, and political cover for military aggression.
"The fundamental equilibrium of the NPT—premised on non-proliferation in exchange for the inalienable right to peaceful nuclear technology and international protection against aggression—has entirely collapsed," the statement read. "Continued membership provides neither protection nor security; rather, it emboldens the enemy's hostility."
The signatories highlighted Iran's past goodwill gestures, including the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol and the installation of dozens of extra-safeguards surveillance cameras across national nuclear facilities. They stressed that this unparalleled level of cooperation produced no safeguards against aggression, resulting instead in heavy material and moral costs, including airstrikes on nuclear sites and the targeted assassinations of prominent Iranian scientists.
The statement sharply criticized the conduct of the IAEA and Director General Rafael Grossi, accusing the agency of failing to fulfill its mandate to safeguard member states' peaceful infrastructure.
"The agency was not even willing to verbally condemn unlawful US military strikes against Iranian nuclear sites," the statement noted. "The Director General claimed neutrality in the face of these aggressions, an attitude that amounts to complicity with the aggressor and a mockery of international law. Worse than silence were the IAEA’s biased reports and pre-strike politicized claims of 'issues of concern,' which served to legitimize military actions by the United States and the Zionist regime."
The officials also pointed to Austria’s recent refusal to grant an entry visa to Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), to attend the IAEA General Conference in Vienna, criticizing the agency's passive response to the host nation’s breach of diplomatic obligations.
Formally endorsing warnings previously issued by SNSC Secretary Major General Mohsen Rezaee alongside legislative initiatives introduced in parliament, the signatories invoked Article X of the NPT, which recognizes a sovereign state's right to withdraw from the treaty in the event of extraordinary circumstances jeopardizing its supreme interests.
While acknowledging that an exit from the NPT could trigger coordinated political campaigns and supplementary sanctions, the officials argued that such fallout remains fully manageable and far less costly than continuing the current cycle of "strikes, assassinations, and diplomatic humiliation."
"The strategic dividends of exiting the NPT include ending one-sided surveillance, closing off espionage channels and pretexts for attack, restoring national deterrence, and securing complete technological autonomy for peaceful nuclear development," the statement emphasized.
The signatories urged Iranian diplomatic authorities to engage in active consultations with international partners, particularly Russia and China, to establish the geopolitical groundwork for the move.
The statement was signed by 32 prominent former officials, including Mohammad-Reza Mirtajodini, Masoud Zaribafan, Heydar Moslehi, Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi, Mohammad Hosseini, Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Ensieh Khazali, Fatemeh Vaez-Javadi, Maryam Mojtahedzadeh, Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, Gholam-Hossein Elham, Bahram Einollahi, Hamid Sajjadi, Hojjatollah Abdolmaleki, Ebrahim Azizi, Lotfollah Forouzandeh, Ali Saeedlou, Fada-Hossein Maleki, and Meysam Latifi.
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