TEHRAN- An advisor to the Iranian nuclear team has underlined that Iran "would have created" a nuclear bomb a year ago if it had desired.

Speaking with the Russian TV network Russia Today (RT) on Saturday, Mohammad Marandi said that the West is bluffing that the Iranian nuclear program is a menace. 

“During the Vienna nuclear negotiations, Western regimes constantly claimed Iran's nuclear program was reaching a point of no return. Months have passed since the talks and the West is silent. Why? They were lying,” Marandi pointed out. 

“If Iran wanted a nuclear weapon, it would have made it one year ago,” he added.

He remarked, “Iran has had that capability for many years now, but it decided not to do so.”

Iran has prohibited nuclear weapons production owing to ethical and religious considerations, based on a decree issued by the Leader of Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.  

Iranian officials, including Kamal Kharrazi, head of the Iranian Strategic Council of Foreign Relations, have insisted on this decree repeatedly.

Addressing the third Tehran Dialogue Forum (TDF) on Monday, Kharrazi also criticized the Westerners for not upholding their obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The former foreign minister also criticized the United States' withdrawal from the legally-binding 2015 nuclear agreement.

Saeed Iravani, the Iranian ambassador to the UN, said last week that Iran was ready to resume talks in Vienna on the renewal of the 2015 nuclear agreement and the lifting of sanctions, but it was up to the U.S. to demonstrate real political will and be prepared to work toward a successful resolution.