Former Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is stirring up a storm with blunt remarks aimed at one of the biggest beliefs in global security: that nuclear weapons keep a country safe. He told listeners that anyone who still thinks nuclear arms provide deterrence should look at Israel over the past year and a half, pointing out that even after devastating Gaza, Israel's reputed nuclear arsenal did not shield it from attack. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though it has never confirmed or denied it. Zarif then pushed the argument further, asking whether nuclear weapons stopped the collapse of the Soviet Union, which held the largest arsenal on Earth. He capped it off with a striking admission that Iran did not have enough uranium to build a nuclear weapon.

The comments come from a speech Zarif gave in May 2025, shortly before the 12-day war between Iran and Israel, and a video of it has now resurfaced and lit up Iranian politics. Hardline media have hit back hard, with one conservative daily accusing him of damaging national security, helping the United States, and launching a "suicidal attack" on the country's security forces. Zarif, who ran the foreign ministry from 2013 to 2021 and helped negotiate the 2015 nuclear deal, argued that Iran's security-first mindset has warped both its nuclear program and its relations with neighbors, and he urged more diplomacy and economic opportunity. His critics see betrayal, while his supporters see a rare dose of honesty from inside the system. The question now is whether this fight signals a deeper split in Tehran over how far Iran should lean on military power and its nuclear program.