Amid war, Iranian hardliners ramp up once-taboo calls to seek nuclear bomb

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-war-iranian-hardliners-ramp-up-once-taboo-calls-to-seek-nuclear-bomb/

Killing of security chief Ali Larijani has made it more difficult for less hawkish figures to push back on IRGC hardliners’ support for building a bomb and bolting NPT, sources say

The debate among Iranian hardliners over whether Tehran should seek a nuclear bomb in defiance of an escalating US-Israeli campaign is getting louder, more public and more insistent, sources in the country say.

There is no plan to change Iran’s nuclear doctrine yet, and Iran has not decided to seek a bomb, one of the sources said, but serious voices in the establishment are questioning the existing policy and demanding a change.

The US-Israeli attacks on Iran, which came about a month into indirect nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran, may have changed the equation, convincing Iranian strategists that they have little to gain by forswearing a bomb or staying in the NPT.