President Rouhani opposes debate in legislature, whose speaker predicts ‘heated discussions’

In this picture released by the office of the Iranian leader on Thursday, September 3, 2015, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting with members of Iran's Experts Assembly in Tehran, Iran. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
In this picture released by the office of the Iranian leader on Thursday, September 3, 2015, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting with members of Iran’s Experts Assembly in Tehran, Iran. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

 

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday that he believes Iran’s parliament should make up its own mind about a landmark nuclear deal struck by the Islamic Republic on July 14 with six world powers.

“It is the representatives of the people who should decide. I have no advice regarding the method of review, approval or rejection,” said Khameini, who has traditionally had the final say on all important matters in Iran.

Khamenei’s comments come as a debate rages in Iran over whether the parliament should ratify or reject the deal.

President Hassan Rouhani is opposed to letting lawmakers vote on the deal, and last week he warned that if parliament votes to approve it, its provisions would be legally binding.

The Iranian legislature announced in mid-August the makeup of a 15-member panel largely composed of conservative lawmakers to review the historic deal.

A general view of Iran's parliament in Tehran,  Aug. 28, 2013 (AP/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A general view of Iran’s parliament in Tehran, Aug. 28, 2013 (AP/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Iran’s parliament and the US Congress need to vote — in the coming weeks — on the agreement struck in Vienna before it can be implemented.

But formal oversight of the accord rests with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, a powerful committee that is headed by Rouhani but which reports to Khamenei.

Iran’s parliament speaker said Thursday he expected a raucous debate in the legislature over approval of the nuclear deal.

Ali Larijani, who backs the agreement reached with the West, declined to say whether he believed lawmakers in the parliament would, in the end, support the deal and suggested the debate would trump the one in the US Congress.

“I think maybe the drama in my country will be bigger than that in yours,” Larijani told reporters in New York, where he was attending a world conference of parliamentary speakers.

“There is one thing that I am sure of, and that is that there will be heated discussions and debate in the Iranian parliament.”

Still, the speaker stressed that there were strong voices opposed to the nuclear deal in parliament.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani (photo credit: AP/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani (photo credit: AP/Vahid Salemi)

“There are people who have found serious and major faults with the agreement”, he said.

Among the grievances are the “snapback mechanism” that would allow the West to re-impose sanctions on Iran if it violates the deal and the strict surveillance regime put in place to ensure compliance.

“The sanctions can return,” he said, but “for us this is not possible. We cannot go back to the situation that we were in.”

Khamenei insisted earlier Thursday that if decades of “sanctions are not lifted, then there will be no deal.”

“Once you remove the core of the Arak reactor, you cannot put it back. That is impossible,” Larijani said. The Arak heavy water reactor will be redesigned under the deal to address concerns about its capabilities.

“Overall it was a good deal because Iran also achieved some of its goals,” he said.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Iran will be required to live up to the agreement in full before its starts benefiting from sanctions relief.

The deal between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States aims to curb Tehran’s nuclear drive in exchange for a gradual lifting of sanctions imposed on its economy since 2006.

Most US lawmakers oppose it, but President Barack Obama has enough backers in the Senate to uphold his certain veto of any congressional resolution disapproving it.

As reported by The Times of Israel