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.
