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Iranian Lawmakers Disagree on Giving Gov’t Green Light to Revive Nuclear Deal

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani arrive at parliament (TASNIM)
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani arrive at parliament (TASNIM)
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Iranian Lawmakers Disagree on Giving Gov’t Green Light to Revive Nuclear Deal

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani arrive at parliament (TASNIM)
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani arrive at parliament (TASNIM)

Iranian parliamentarians found themselves in disagreement on green-lighting the cleric-led country’s nuclear deal negotiating team concluding any deal with the US without first gaining the legislators’ approval.

The dispute comes two days after Iran sent a package of proposals in response to the “final text” put forward by the European Union coordinator to revive the nuclear agreement.

In a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani gave Iranian lawmakers a detailed report on the developments of nuclear talks.

“The negotiations are over, and the agreement process is underway. Iran's political decision has been made and the US must make its own political decision,” Abbas Moqtadaee, vice chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission told the official IRNA news agency.

Moqtadaee noted that parliamentarians had “presented their views in Wednesday’s meeting and listened to the explanation required from the concerned officials.”

“Currently, the ball is in the court of the US and the West, and they should make the right decision to respond to Iran regarding the agreement,” Vali Esmaili, vice chairman of the Social Commission of the parliament, told the official IRNA news agency on Wednesday.

Esmaili said the parliament has given complete authority to the Iranian negotiating team in the nuclear talks.

On Monday, Iran announced that it had presented its written response to the EU's draft of a potential agreement, noting that if the US reaction features realism and flexibility, the nuclear agreement will be achieved.

The latest round of the nuclear talks was held in Austria's capital Vienna in early August after a five-month hiatus. On Aug. 8, the EU put forward a “final text” of the draft decision on reviving the nuclear deal.

Iran signed a nuclear deal with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. However, former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact.

The talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal began in April 2021 in Vienna but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington.

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Türkiye Presses PKK to Disarm ‘Immediately’

An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
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Türkiye Presses PKK to Disarm ‘Immediately’

An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)
An Iraqi Kurdish woman waves a flag bearing the portrait of the founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan as people gather at Freedom Park to listen to an audio message by the jailed leader in Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on February 27, 2025. (AFP)

Türkiye on Thursday insisted the PKK and all groups allied with it must disarm and disband "immediately", a week after a historic call by the Kurdish militant group's jailed founder.

"The PKK and all groups affiliated with it must end all terrorist activities, dissolve and immediately and unconditionally lay down their weapons," a Turkish defense ministry source said.

The remarks made clear the demand referred to all manifestations of Abdullah Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has led a four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state, costing tens of thousands of lives.

Although the insurgency targeted Türkiye, the PKK's leadership is based in the mountains of northern Iraq and its fighters are also part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key force in northeastern Syria.

Last week, Ocalan made a historic call urging the PKK to dissolve and his fighters to disarm, with the group on Saturday accepting his call and declaring a ceasefire.

The same day, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that if the promises were not kept, Turkish forces would continue their anti-PKK operations.

"If the promises given are not kept and an attempt is made to delay... or deceive... we will continue our ongoing operations... until we eliminate the last terrorist," he said.

- Resonance in Syria, Iraq -

Since 2016, Türkiye has carried out three major military operations in northern Syria targeting PKK militants, which it sees as a strategic threat along its southern border.

Ankara has made clear it wants to see all PKK fighters disarmed wherever they are -- notably those in the US-backed SDF, which it sees as part of the PKK.

The SDF -- the bulk of which is made up of the Kurdish YPG -- spearheaded the fight that ousted ISIS extremists from Syria in 2019, and is seen by much of the West as crucial to preventing an extremist resurgence.

Last week, SDF leader Mazloum Abdi welcomed Ocalan's call for the PKK to lay down its weapons but said it "does not concern our forces" in northeastern Syria.

But Türkiye disagrees.

Since the toppling of Syria's Bashar al-Assad in December, Ankara has threatened military action unless YPG militants are expelled, deeming them to be a regional security problem.

"Our fundamental approach is that all terrorist organizations should disarm and be dissolved in Iraq and Syria, whether they are called the PKK, the YPG or the SDF," Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan's ruling AKP, said on Monday.

Ocalan's call also affects Iraq, with the PKK leadership holed up in the mountainous north where Turkish forces have staged multiple air strikes in recent years.

Turkish forces have also established numerous bases there, souring Ankara's relationship with Baghdad.

"We don't want either the PKK or the Turkish army on our land... Iraq wants everyone to withdraw," Iraq's national security adviser Qassem al-Araji told AFP.

"Turkish forces are (in Iraq) because of the PKK's presence," he said, while pointing out that Türkiye had "said more than once that it has no territorial ambitions in Iraq".