As the world watches the United Nations General Assembly unfold in New York this week, Iran finds itself at the center of a rapidly escalating nuclear crisis. On September 22, 2025, seventy hardline Iranian lawmakers issued a dramatic call for the country to begin building a nuclear bomb, just days before the reimposition of sweeping UN sanctions that threaten to further cripple Iran’s already battered economy. Their letter, directed not to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but to the Supreme National Security Council, signals a significant hardening of tone in Tehran as Western pressure mounts and regional tensions spiral.
According to reporting by Al Jazeera, the lawmakers’ letter urged a “change in the defence doctrine” of the Islamic Republic, arguing that Khamenei’s longstanding fatwa against the use of nuclear weapons does not technically prohibit their construction or possession as a deterrent. The lawmakers warned that Israel “has reached the brink of madness,” accusing it of carrying out attacks without regard for international law and killing innocents. Their rhetoric, always forceful, has grown more urgent since Israel’s surprise attacks on Iran in June 2025—a campaign that triggered a 12-day war, saw the US bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, and left the region on edge.
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is purely civilian in nature. Yet, as Fair Observer highlights in a recent interview with journalist Nicholas J. S. Davies, the country has been the target of sustained US and Israeli claims that it harbors secret ambitions for nuclear arms. Davies points out that Iran, itself a victim of chemical weapons attacks by Iraq in the 1980s (attacks carried out with Western support), views nuclear weapons as “religiously forbidden.” Despite this, he argues, an “endless propaganda war” has painted Iran as an existential threat, fueling repeated cycles of tension and confrontation.
The present crisis has its roots in the collapse of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a landmark nuclear agreement that placed Iran under some of the world’s most intrusive inspections in exchange for sanctions relief. The deal unraveled in May 2018 when then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew, branding it the “worst deal ever” and vowing to secure tougher terms. New negotiations never materialized. In response, Iran began gradually breaching the deal’s limits, including enriching uranium to 60% purity—still below the 90% required for weapons, but far above civilian fuel levels, as the IAEA noted in its May 2024 report.
The latest round of escalation began on August 28, 2025, when France, Germany, and the United Kingdom—known as the E3—declared Iran out of compliance with the nuclear deal and triggered the so-called “snapback” mechanism. This move set a 30-day countdown for the reimposition of all UN sanctions lifted under the JCPOA, a deadline that expires on September 28. Despite strong opposition from China and Russia, the E3 pressed ahead, citing Iran’s refusal to resolve outstanding questions about its nuclear activities. The UN Security Council declined to intervene, leaving the sanctions on track to return.
In a last-ditch effort to avert this outcome, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Masoud Pezeshkian traveled to New York for the General Assembly. Araghchi presented what he described as an “actionable plan” to his European counterparts, reportedly offering to dilute Iran’s supply of highly enriched uranium in exchange for a deferral of sanctions. “On behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran, I yesterday presented a reasonable and actionable plan to E3/EU counterparts to avert an unnecessary and avoidable crisis in the coming days,” Araghchi stated, lamenting that Iran was “faced with a litany of excuses and outright deflection.” He insisted he had “the full support” of Iran’s establishment, including the Supreme National Security Council.
Yet, as AP details, the clock is running out. The Iranian rial, battered by years of sanctions and persistent inflation above 35%, hovered around 1.05 million to the US dollar on Monday—near its all-time low. The government, bracing for more pain, has readied “livelihood and special support packages,” according to First Vice President Mohammad Reza Araf, though details remain scarce.
Meanwhile, Iran’s nuclear ambitions continue to draw international scrutiny. On September 21, 2025, Iran suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the E3’s move to restore sanctions. This marks a sharp break from the JCPOA era, when the IAEA concluded that Iran’s pre-2003 research did not amount to a weapons program. IAEA Director Rafael Grossi’s more recent reports, however, have been critical of Iran’s lack of transparency. Iran now accuses Grossi of failing to condemn Israeli attacks on its territory, contrasting him unfavorably with former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who famously resisted US pressure over alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
The regional security picture is equally fraught. Over the past 18 months, Israel has carried out a campaign of sabotage, assassinations, drone strikes, and missile attacks against Iran, often with the help of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), a group with a controversial past. According to Davies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has exaggerated the success of these operations, but their impact on Iranian morale and infrastructure is real. Israel, itself the region’s only nuclear-armed state—and notably not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty—has faced little international scrutiny, thanks in part to a hollow safeguards agreement with the IAEA dating from the 1970s.
Iran, for its part, is not standing still. Nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami arrived in Moscow this week to finalize a deal with Russia for the construction of eight new nuclear power plants—four in Bushehr, where Iran already operates a plant, and four at sites yet to be determined. The country aims to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity from nuclear power to combat chronic blackouts and meet growing energy needs. As Iran’s tourism minister Reza Salehi Amiri emphasized, Iran is also deepening ties with China, its largest trading partner, and ramping up oil exports to circumvent US sanctions.
Yet, the specter of war looms large. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock now sits closer to midnight than ever, reflecting the heightened risk of nuclear conflict. Davies warns that if Israel were to lose a full-scale war with Iran, it might resort to nuclear weapons—a scenario that could draw in Pakistan, which has threatened retaliation on Iran’s behalf, and potentially the US, Russia, or NATO. The events of the past year—Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, Iran’s direct attacks on Israel, and US interventions—have brought the region to the brink.
This week also marks “holy defence week” in Iran, commemorating the eight-year Iran-Iraq war that killed hundreds of thousands. The memory of that conflict, fought against a better-armed Iraq with support from both East and West, looms over current events. Top Iranian military commanders have issued statements of defiance against Israel and the US, signaling that, whatever the outcome of the diplomatic maneuvering in New York, Iran will not back down easily.
As the deadline for the reimposition of UN sanctions approaches, the world faces a familiar but ever more dangerous standoff. The choices made in the coming days—by diplomats in New York, generals in Tehran and Tel Aviv, and leaders in Moscow, Beijing, and Washington—may shape the region’s future for years to come.