Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reiterated his support for a law passed by the Iranian Parliament to reduce Iran’s commitments to a 2015 nuclear agreement in response to US sanctions.
In a meeting with the speaker and members of the Parliament, Khamenei praised the Parliament for passing the "Strategic Action Plan", underlining that it has saved the country from uncertainty regarding the nuclear issue.
He described it as a "strategic" move that deserves praise, saying: "The Strategic Action law to lift sanctions was a fundamental resolution. [..] We can even see the results of its implementation on a global scale."
The law was enacted two weeks before President Joe Biden assumed his position in the White House.
Based on the law, Tehran raised the rate of uranium enrichment to 20 percent at the Natanz facility in January 2021 before it began enriching uranium to 60 percent at the facility later in April. At the same time, Tehran and the major powers began talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran renounced the Additional Protocol, which it had agreed to under the nuclear deal. After abandoning the protocol, Tehran refused to hand over the surveillance camera recordings that monitor its sensitive activities.
At that time, Tehran justified the strategic move in response to the assassination of top nuclear and defense scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. It took months to persuade senior officials to pass the law.
Negotiations on reviving the nuclear deal stalled last year after Tehran insisted on closing an international investigation into three unknown sites where enriched uranium was found.
Earlier this year, IAEA inspectors found uranium enriched at 83.7 percent at the Fordow facility, raising fears of changing the course of the Iranian nuclear program, with the accumulation of uranium stocks by 60 percent. Weapons-grade uranium is enriched at 90 percent.
Khamenei made several recommendations to lawmakers to avoid internal disputes, saying that forces and parties that do not complement each other will be ineffective.
He called for a view based on cooperation and solidarity between the state agencies in Iran.
Khamenei touched on the legislative elections scheduled for next February and March to elect a new parliament.
"After three years, I still consider this Parliament revolutionary, young and dynamic. Of course, this is a general view that does not consider the exceptions that may exist in the Parliament," said Khamenei defending the Parliament's performance.
Khamenei warned the parliamentarians of the duality of "rapprochement or destruction" in the Parliament's relationship with other branches of government, especially the executive branch.
"In the destructive view, both parties see each other as rivals to uproot each other. This view is dangerous and problematic for both the government and the Parliament."
Last week, Khamenei met with senior officials from the Foreign Ministry and said that "expediency" means having flexibility where it is necessary to bypass hard and rocky obstacles to continue a path.
He criticized the misinterpretation of the term "heroic flexibility," which he used before the 2013 nuclear talks involving secret talks with the US through Omani mediation. Later, the discussions became public within the "5+1," resulting in the 2015 agreement.
