Iran's nuclear program to go on uninterrupted: diplomat

“Iran has always maintained that our nuclear program is for peaceful purposes,” Alireza Miryousefi, spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the United Nations told NBC News.

He cited a fatwa from the Iranian Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that bans the development of weapons of mass destruction as contrary to Islam.

Miryousefi said that Iran has disrupted numerous plots and will remain vigilant against threats from abroad, but that the country’s nuclear work will go on.

“While a great scientist and a national hero has been brutally murdered by state-ordered terrorists, Iran’s peaceful nuclear program will continue according to plan,” he told NBC News in an email.

Earlier, Miryousefi told Newsweek, "Iran makes decisions on its nuclear program based on national interests."

"As you know, the steps taken since the US withdrew from the JCPOA are incremental and will be in effect as long as other parties are in violation of the accord and/or are not fulfilling their obligations."

"Retaliation for Dr. Fakhrizadeh's assassination will come in due course against the perpetrators of the terrorist action, and at a time and place of our choosing," Miryousefi said.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council on Friday, Majid Takht-Ravanchi wrote, “The cowardly assassination of Martyr Fakhrizadeh -- with serious indications of Israeli responsibility in it – is another desperate attempt to wreak havoc on our region as well as to disrupt Iran’s scientific and technological development."

Condemning the assassination of the Iranian scientist and emphasizing the great services of Martyr Fakhrizadeh in the field of defence and nuclear, the Iranian officials announced that the path of this scientist will continue and the perpetrators of this terrorist operation will receive a proper response.

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