Iranian hard-liners argued that nuclear armament is necessary to gain the upper hand in negotiations with the United States.
On the 29th (local time), Fars News Agency, a semi-official outlet that speaks for Iran's conservative hard-liners, said in a commentary that "to achieve the peace and stability Iran needs, it must secure nuclear deterrence."
Fars News Agency said the United States began contacting China in secret after China succeeded in testing an atomic bomb in the mid-1960s, and argued that Iran should follow the same path.
Fars News Agency is known to be linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and has so far pushed hard-line positions such as canceling negotiations with the United States and closing the Strait of Hormuz.