Iranian MPs show support for nuclear deal
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Iran’s parliament yesterday gave a partial nod to a nuclear deal with world powers, but only after fiery clashes and allegations from a top negotiator that a lawmaker had threatened to kill him.
Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, went on the attack for the government at the end of a boisterous debate where he and other officials were accused of having capitulated.
Ultraconservative lawmakers repeatedly warned of holes in the text of the deal and criticized President Hassan Rouhani for suggesting MPs were deliberately delaying it.
Alireza Zakani, who headed a panel reviewing the accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, for two months, demanded “fundamental changes” to the text.
“This deal serves Wendy Sherman” and not Iran’s interests, Zakani said, referring to the United States’ senior negotiator in talks that resulted in the deal in Vienna on July 14.
Hardliners in Tehran often railed against two years of diplomacy that led to the agreement. Iran’s government said the accord will protect the country’s nuclear program and see sanctions lifted.
Despite yesterday’s disagreements, the outlines of a motion titled “Iran’s Plan for Reciprocal and Proper Action in Implementing JCPOA” were approved by 139 of 253 lawmakers present.
Lawmakers stopped short of endorsing the nuclear accord yesterday and said details of the text are to be discussed and voted on tomorrow.
Members of the US Congress failed in September to torpedo the White House’s historic agreement with Iran.
Salehi, an atomic scientist by training and a former foreign minister, hit out at what he said was the “immoral” behavior of some MPs in the way they’d responded to talks and the deal.
“Truth might be bitter for some ... Listen. Listen. Hear me once and for all. Hear it from someone who is going be buried under cement,” he said.
The latter remark was in reference to a lawmaker who Salehi said took a vow to kill him because the government agreed to remove and disable the core of a reactor at Arak, one of Iran’s nuclear sites.
“We negotiated within a framework and principles. Who set that framework? Me? A minimum and maximum was set for us,” Salehi said.
So-called red lines for the talks were also laid down by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Supreme National Security Council that he oversees.
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