A former senior Iranian lawmaker has disclosed that Iran’s aim from the beginning was to produce nuclear weapons, but it failed to keep the project secret.

Speaking with Iscanews in Tehran on Sunday, Ali Motahari said that Iran’s nuclear weapons project was meant to be develop a deterrent force, but the Mojahedin Khalq (MEK) opposition group revealed the program to the world (2002).

(Hyperlink to Iscanews removed by Iran International, because original report was edited the following day, deleting most of Motahar's remarks.)

Motahari, a former deputy speaker of parliament added, “A country that wants to have a peaceful nuclear program does not start with [uranium] enrichment,” which creates the perception that the goal is making nuclear bombs.

“If we could secretly produce and test a [nuclear] bomb like Pakistan [did], it would be a great deterrent,” he said, and went on to argue that “I believe if we started something, we should have finished it.”

Motahari immediately added that “now the view of the Supreme Leader is that producing nuclear weapons is haram,” or religiously forbidden.

Motahari, who is a social and religious conservative, has been an outspoken critic of certain policies of the Islamic Republic in recent years, including restricting fair competition within the system and political freedoms.