Iran will never abandon its military nuclear option, ex-president says

The former president of Iran, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, claimed on Wednesday that his country has never given up its plan to develop a military nuclear program. He said in parallel to Iran's development of civillian nuclear facilities for peaceful purposes, the country has planned to build a nuclear bomb in response to the military threat against its people, and has never abandoned that plan. The comments came in a Farsi-language interview with Iran's IRNA news agency that was not translated into English.