Iranian Regime Continues Its Lies on Khamenei's Nonexistent Fatwa Banning Nuclear Weapons.(
Memri).
In President Obama's announcement of the joint statement following
the conclusion of the negotiations in Lausanne, he again mentioned the
nonexistent fatwa, stating as fact that Iran’s Supreme Leader has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons.
[1]
This assertion by the president is not true. Such a fatwa has never
been issued, and to this day no one has been able to show it, as MEMRI
has detailed in five reports so far.[2]
The following is the sixth MEMRI report, constituting an update about this nonexistent fatwa.
Introduction.
The Iranian regime has persisted in its attempts to deceive the West
in the matter of a fatwa that it claims was issued by Iranian Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei banning nuclear weapons. The deception focuses on
both the fatwa's alleged date of issue and on its alleged content. This
fatwa has never been presented by Iran and in fact does not exist.
An Iranian international law expert published, on the BBC Persian
website, an article stating that no such fatwa was ever issued.
One (Nonexistent) Fatwa – Many Dates.
Following the continuing pressure on the Iranian regime to come up
with Khamenei's (nonexistent) fatwa that allegedly bans nuclear weapons,
the regime recently published, on one of the two websites where
Khamenei's fatwas are published, a letter sent by Khamenei in April 2010
to the Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and
Non-Proliferation.
The letter, in Farsi, Arabic, English, and Spanish,
was posted under the heading "New Fatwas." (see
Appendix I).
On
February 26, 2015, Khamenei tweeted, "We consider the use of WMDs as
Haraam [forbidden]" and linked to the letter on the website.
[3]
The presentation of this letter as a (new) fatwa proves that no such
fatwa was ever issued before; likewise, the letter to the conference
does not constitute a religiously binding fatwa, but is a political
statement with no religious significance.
Additionally, the nonexistent fatwa has over the years been given
different dates of issue by different Iranian regime spokesmen, but none
have ever actually presented it.
[4]
In May 2012, before being elected president, Hassan Rohani claimed
that the fatwa was issued in 2004, when was heading the Iranian
delegation to the nuclear talks with the EU3.
He also stated that it was
he, Rohani, who had thought to present Khamenei's statements in a
November 5, 2004 Friday sermon at Tehran University to the EU3 prior to
the signing of the November 2004 Paris Agreement, as a fatwa to
guarantee that Iran was not striving to develop nuclear weapons.
[5]
As noted, the Khamenei sermon that Rohani presented as a fatwa was
delivered in 2004, whereas Khamenei's letter to the conference,
identified as a "new" fatwa on his website, is dated 2010.
One (Nonexistent) Fatwa – Different Content
Furthermore, Khamenei, in his November 5, 2004 sermon, defined
possessing, storing, and using nuclear weapons as "problematic" – not as
"prohibited (haram)."[6] However, in his 2010 letter, Khamenei defines nuclear weapons as prohibited (
haram; see
Appendix I).
[7]
Appendix I: Khamenei's Letter To The 2010 Tehran Conference
The following screenshot shows Khamenei's April 2010 letter to the
Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation,
under the "New Fatwas" section of his fatwas website.
Source: Khamenei.ir, accessed March 23, 2015.
Appendix II: Iranian International Law Expert:
"Where Is The Iranian Leader's Original Fatwa Banning Nuclear Weapons?
And What Does It Say? In Reality, So Far No One Has Claimed To Have
Actually Seen The Fatwa"
On July 16, 2014, BBC Persian posted an article titled "
Where Is The
Iranian Leader's Fatwa Banning Nuclear Weapons?" by Iranian
international law expert Bahman Aghai Diba.
In it, Aghai Diba explained
that the regime's failure to publish the actual text of the fatwa,
coupled with its reliance on a letter by Khamenei to a conference in
Tehran, constitute a breach of Shi'ite custom, according to which a
published fatwa consists of a question posed to a senior ayatollah
together with his reply.
According to Aghai Diba, the failure to post
the fatwa on Khamenei's various websites, where detailed descriptions of
many of his other fatwas do appear, casts doubt on its existence, and prevents it from being examined for both date and content.
[8]
The following are the main points of his article, as translated from the Persian:
[9]
"
The Iranian government states that the regime of the Islamic
Republic of Iran does not aspire to use nuclear energy for military
purposes, and in order to prove this point they refer to a fatwa or
religious ruling by the Iranian Supreme Leader, which allegedly forbids
[the use of] weapons of mass destruction.
"
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has said that Iran will turn
this fatwa into a law in order to reassure several states of the
civilian nature [of its nuclear program]. The U.S. Secretary of State
also said that this fatwa is important, but should become law.
An
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman [Afkham] also said, in the past, that
the Islamic Republic intends to register this fatwa with the UN.
"
But where is the Iranian leader's original fatwa banning nuclear
weapons? And what does it say? In reality, so far no one has claimed to
have actually seen the fatwa.
"Fatwas have a certain status in Islamic jurisprudence. They have
formatting and content requirements. The fatwas are usually in the form
of a question asked of a
marja' taqlid [the highest jurisprudential authority in Shi'a Islam], and the
marja'a gives an answer that is based on Islamic religious sources.
"
Keeping in mind that the Iranian leader's fatwa banning nuclear
weapons has never been published anywhere, it is not clear what its
format and content are.
Who asked the question ([i.e.] an ordinary
person or a jurist[?]) and what formulas and rules from Islamic
religious law were used in order to reply to it?
For example, does the
word haram [forbidden] appear in it, or are conditions for this ban spelled out?
"In accordance with the accepted definition of a fatwa (according to
the explanation presented in the existing sources that are known to
all), [a fatwa]
is: 'A publicly applicable religious law
concerning a particular issue that is derived from the four sources [of
Islamic law]: the Koran, the Sunnah [i.e. the traditions],
ijma [consensus among the clerics], and a logical interpretation of the issue by the
marja'.
"It is said that Khamenei's fatwa banning nuclear weapons was issued
somewhere around 2005.
On October 31, 2013, Iranian Majlis speaker Ali
Larijani said that Iran's Supreme Leader has banned the use of nuclear
weapons, and the Iranian government wants to register this [fatwa]
as
a document in the U.N. This is evidence that at least as of that date
this fatwa had not been presented in the form of a document to the U.N.
At the same time, there is no precedent in history of the registration
of such a fatwa in the U.N.
"When a fatwa is issued by the
marja' taqlid, this religious
edict reaches the knowledge of the public by various channels. In this
day and age, when clerics have extensive means [to publish] both
privately and publicly, their fatwas are published on multiple websites,
including the official websites of these
maraji'.
Leader
Khamenei's rulings and fatwas are presented on his personal and official
websites, on almost every subject, in detail and in a very organized
manner, and hundreds of other elements [in Iran] also reiterate these
fatwas.
"These edicts are [also] organized according to words, languages, and
topics.
However, such an important fatwa – a fatwa that bans nuclear
weapons – on which many high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic
rely appears nowhere in the abovementioned sources.
Its text is not
found on any website, nor in any of the numerous collections of the
Supreme Leader's publications that are published by the Center for
Preserving and Publishing the Works of the Leader, nor in any language.
"
However, the inaccessibility of this fatwa prevents it from being
examined in order to determine what the ban on weapons of mass
destruction is based on.
What extent of mass destruction does it
include? When the Iranians and the Iraqis were killed extensively during
the Iran-Iraq War (especially owing to Iran's 'human wave' strategy [in
which Iran sent masses across minefields]), no
marja', including
Ayatollah [Ruhollah] Khomeini, issued a fatwa or order to prevent all
this slaughter or to define this destruction and slaughter as
un-Islamic.
"
Ayatollah Khomeini never declared the Iraqi nuclear project
'un-Islamic,' even though it was clearly intended for military use (this
[Iraqi] project was stopped by Israel's bombing of the Iraqi nuclear
facilities).
"Some sources have tried to say that Khamenei's fatwa is his April 4,
2010 letter to the Disarmament Conference in Tehran, in which he
condemned the use of weapons of mass destruction, calling them 'a
violation of human rights and a clear example of war crimes.'
But this
claim is unacceptable, because this letter is not considered a fatwa.
"
The fatwa banning nuclear weapons by Iran's Supreme Leader remains shrouded in fog."
Hmmm.....As i said before: If there were such a Fatwa, there would be no need for Hidden nuclear installations'.......Period.
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