Iran envoy: Atom bomb would be strategic mistake

Building nuclear bombs would be a strategic mistake for Iran, its envoy to the UN atomic agency said on Monday, and a leading Western expert said Tehran should be taken seriously when it insists it will not obtain such arms.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), suggested the Islamic Republic could never compete in terms of the numbers of warheads possessed by the nuclear-armed major powers. (Reuters)