Iran's SNSC chief makes first-ever NPT withdrawal threat — SkimNews
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- Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, issued the first-ever NPT withdrawal threat from that office in response to IAEA Resolution GOV/2026/61 — no previous SNSC secretary has ever made such a warning
- Thirty-two Iranian conservatives published an open letter on September 28 calling on President Pezeshkian, the Majles, and the SNSC to halt all cooperation with the IAEA and immediately begin the NPT withdrawal process
- The 2025 U.S.-Iran war broke the conservative monopoly on NPT withdrawal advocacy, with moderates like journalist Ali Nazari now supporting both leaving the treaty and developing a nuclear weapon
- Tehran's hostility toward IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi has intensified dramatically, with Iran blaming the agency for the 12-day War, for failing to condemn Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, and for excluding Iran's top nuclear official Mohammad Eslami from the IAEA's September general conference
- Russia and China remain the main obstacle to Iranian NPT withdrawal, having absorbed nearly all of Iran's oil exports since the U.S. left the JCPOA in 2018 and serving as Tehran's primary diplomatic partners
- Majles President Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, who is simultaneously Iran's chief negotiator, faces a looming decision on whether to advance 'triple-urgency' legislation from ultraconservative lawmakers seeking immediate NPT exit
- Khamenei's 1995 fatwa prohibiting weapons of mass destruction was reaffirmed by Rezaei, though some argue its normative force was already weakened by Iran's 2024 nuclear posture, which broke what the article calls the 'ultimate linguistic taboo of the Islamic Republic'
Why it matters: Iran has stayed in the NPT through war, unprecedented sanctions, and the 2025 snapback, but the first-ever withdrawal threat from the SNSC — the body that actually decides on nuclear policy — marks a real departure from past ultraconservative rhetoric alone. The remaining hurdle is Moscow and Beijing, which absorb nearly all Iranian oil exports and have historically resisted Iranian moves that could complicate their own positions at the Security Council.
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