Iran's Supreme Leader said on Thursday he favored a
parliamentary vote on its nuclear deal reached with world powers and
called for sanctions against Tehran to be lifted completely rather than
suspended, state television reported.
President Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist whose 2013 election
paved the way to a diplomatic thaw with the West, and his allies have
opposed such a parliamentary vote, arguing this would create legal
obligations complicating the deal's implementation.
"Parliament should not be sidelined on the nuclear deal
issue ... I am not saying lawmakers should ratify or reject the deal. It
is up to them to decide," said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the
final say on all state policy in Iran.
“I have told the president that it is not in our interest to
not let our lawmakers review the deal,” the top Shi'ite Muslim cleric
said in remarks broadcast live on state TV.
Khamenei himself has not publicly endorsed or voiced
opposition to the Vienna accord, having only praised the work of the
Islamic Republic's negotiating team.
A special committee of parliament, where conservative
hardliners close to Khamenei are predominant, have begun reviewing the
deal before putting it to a vote. But Rouhani's government has not
prepared a bill for parliament to vote on.
The landmark deal, clinched on July 14 between Iran and the
United States, Germany, France, Russia, China and Britain, is aimed at
curbing Iran's nuclear activities to help ensure they remain peaceful in
exchange for a removal of economic sanctions.
U.S. President Barack Obama secured enough Senate votes on
Wednesday to see the nuclear deal through Congress -- a vote must be
taken by Sept. 17 -- but hardline Republicans vowed to pursue their
fight to scuttle it by passing new sanctions.
Khamenei said that without a cancellation of sanctions that have hobbled Iran's economy, the deal would be jeopardized.
"Should the sanctions be suspended, then there would be no
deal either. So this issue must be resolved. If they only suspend the
sanctions, then we will only suspend our nuclear activities," he said.
Iran and the Western powers have appeared to differ since the accord was
struck on precisely how and when sanctions are to be dismantled.
"Then we could go on and triple the number of centrifuges to
60,000, keep a 20 percent level of uranium enrichment and also
accelerate our research and development (R&D) activities," the
Supreme Leader added.
The Vienna agreement puts strict limits in all three
sensitive areas of Iran's nuclear program, seen as crucial to creating
confidence that Tehran will not covertly seek to develop atomic bombs
from enriched uranium.
Iran has said it wants only peaceful nuclear energy.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Iran's arch
regional enemy, insisted on Thursday most Americans agreed with him over
dangers posed by Tehran, even as he lost his battle to persuade
Congress to reject the deal once Obama had bagged enough votes to get it
upheld.
HOSTILITY TO CONTINUE
Khamenei also criticized the United States' Middle East
policy, suggesting that antagonism prevailing between Iran and
Washington since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Tehran will not abate
because of the nuclear deal.
"Our officials have been banned from holding talks with
Americans except on the nuclear issue. This is because our policies
differ with America," he said.
"One of America's regional policies is to fully destroy the
forces of resistance and wants to retake full control of Iraq and Syria
... America expects Iran to be part of this framework," Khamenei told a
session of the Assembly of Experts which has the power both to dismiss a
Supreme Leader and to choose one. "But this will never happen."
By "forces of resistance", Khamenei was alluding to Islamist
militant groups such as Hezbollah, a close ally -- like Iran -- of
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his war with rebels trying to
overthrow him.
Rouhani has made it clear in his speeches that he favors
greater engagement with the world, seeming open to cooperating with the
United States to reduce conflict in the Middle East.
But Khamenei and his hardline loyalists remain deeply
suspicious of U.S. intentions. Relations with Washington were severed in
1979 and hostility towards the United States remains a central rallying
point of influential hardliners in Tehran.
(By Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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