Diplomatic Nonsense

Oh, come on!

A religious decree (fatwa) by Iran's supreme leader has even greater force in preventing the country from producing nuclear weapons than do treaties signed by Tehran, top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani was quoted by the IRNA news agency Tuesday as saying.

"It is much more important for us to abide by this decree than the articles of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and its additional protocol," Rowhani said in a meeting with Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller on Monday.

According to Rowhani, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's fatwa forbids the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons.

A top figure in the Islamic Republic, Rowhani is not the first official to have cited this decree, the text of which has never been made public.

This is absolutely ridiculous. Not only is it an out-and-out lie, but it demonstrates once again that the Iranians have little or no respect for the international laws they've been breaking for years.