US Vice President JD Vance has warned of the possibility of Iran carrying out attacks using suicide bombers with nuclear weapons on their vests.
The vice president was speaking at a cabinet meeting in the White House about the risks Iran posed to the United States.
"People who walk into a crowded supermarket and have a vest on, and they blow up the vest and a couple of people get killed," Vance said.
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"What happens when what's on the vest is not something that can kill a couple of people but can kill many, many, tens of thousands of people?"
The smallest nuclear bomb the United States acknowledged they had built was a 23kg warhead.
That bomb had the equivalent impact of ten tonnes of TNT.
Smaller bombs have been theorised but never officially acknowledged to have been built.
Vance's comments come as Iranian hardliners push to exit its membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
"Membership in the NPT has not only yielded no benefits for Iran in gaining access to peaceful nuclear energy, but it has also, beyond the NPT, merely aided the espionage activities of Israel and the United States against Iran," an editorial from Tasnim News Agency read.
"Iran must withdraw from this treaty as soon as possible."
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Prominent commentator Nasser Torabi went further, by insisting Iran acquire a nuclear weapon as soon as possible.
But former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared a fatwa saying that nuclear weapons were not permissible in Islam.
That fatwa could be revoked by new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei if Iran's government wanted to proceed with a nuclear weapons program.
Meanwhile, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un said the US attack on Iran validated his own country developing nuclear weapons.
"Today's reality clearly demonstrates the legitimacy of our nation's strategic choice and decision to reject the enemies' sweet talk and permanently secure our nuclear arsenal," Kim said in a speech to the Supreme People's Assembly in Pyongyang earlier this week.
"I affirm that our nation is no longer a country under threat — we now possess the power to pose a threat if necessary."
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