Iran is debating whether to keep its longstanding ban on nuclear weapons if hostilities resume, but no decision has been taken to change the country's nuclear doctrine, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, said on state television on Saturday 31 October. Rezaei said Iran was debating whether to remain a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) if the United States resumes war, while stressing no new decision has yet been taken.

The debate has moved into official politics. Iranian legislator Mahmoud Nabavian wrote on Saturday that, now that Iran has paid the heavy costs of war and sanctions, it is time for the Iranian nation to withdraw from the NPT and change the nuclear doctrine, Al Jazeera reported. Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said 10 proposals to withdraw had been registered, according to Fars. One triple-urgency bill was signed by 48 lawmakers, Tasnim reported.

What withdrawal would and would not mean

Iran signed the NPT in 1968 and ratified it in 1970 as a non-nuclear-weapon state; it is one of 191 parties. The treaty allows withdrawal with three months' notice if a state decides extraordinary events have jeopardised its supreme interests. Withdrawal would not automatically mean Iran would build a nuclear weapon, observers note, and Tehran's official position of not seeking nuclear arms remains unchanged.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that Iran was reviewing proposals on its nuclear programme and that a delegation had travelled to Qatar for consultations. The government has not approved a withdrawal, and any bill must first be accepted by the presiding board before debate. Nothing has been decided: the story is a debate, in the open, about a step Iran has not yet taken.