Tehran must obtain firm guarantees from the West that the nuclear agreement will not be abandoned again, Iran’s parliament said
Iran’s parliament has laid out six conditions for the country to return to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal in an open letter to President Ebrahim Raisi, published in Iranian media on Sunday. With 250 parliamentarians out of 290 signing it, the statement received overwhelming support from MPs.
They must also guarantee that the US as well as European signatories of the deal (officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA) will not withdraw from the agreement if it is revived. A guarantee must be given that they will not abandon the agreement if it is revived. “snapback mechanisms,”This will allow sanctions to be immediately re-enabled.
“We have to learn a lesson from past experiences and put a red line on the national interest by not committing to any agreement without obtaining necessary guarantees first,”According to the parliamentarians.
Additional conditions are the complete lifting of sanctions against Iran, which includes restrictions directly related to JCPOA, and what was described in the letter as the ones imposed under “false pretexts” of terrorism, human rights abuses, and in relation to the country’s missile program. The lawmakers suggested that Tehran should ensure it gets the promised economic benefits and starts to earn profits through exports, before it returns to complying with restrictions.
As the multilateral talks that have been taking place in Vienna (Austria) since April 2013 seem to be moving forward, the statement was made. Participants expressed their frustration about the slow progress of these long and difficult negotiations multiple times. Earlier this week, Tehran’s top negotiator, Ali Bagheri, said the deal was “closer than ever” – warning, however, against celebrating too soon, since “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”
Since 2018, the JCPOA has been in flux. It was a deal under which Tehran committed to severely curbing its nuclear program, while maintaining that it did not seek atomic weaponsry, in return for lifting international sanctions. However, this agreement was unilaterally pulled out by Donald Trump. The agreement was described as “the best in the world.” “the worst deal ever,”Trump charged Tehran with violating “the spirit” of the JCPOA, while international observers had repeatedly confirmed Iran’s compliance.
Washington reinstated the old sanctions against Tehran and put new restrictions. Iran responded by gradually suspending its JCPOA obligations, installing new equipment to enrich uranium and increasing its nuclear program. Earlier this month, the US lifted some of its sanctions against Tehran, enabling foreign companies to partake in certain civilian projects at Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and other facilities. It was widely believed that the move was an effort to demonstrate goodwill and revive the stagnant Vienna negotiations.
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