Iran's Supreme Leader Renews Support to ‘Strategic Action’ Plan

Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei received the speaker and members of the Parliament (Khamenei website)
Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei received the speaker and members of the Parliament (Khamenei website)
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Iran's Supreme Leader Renews Support to ‘Strategic Action’ Plan

Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei received the speaker and members of the Parliament (Khamenei website)
Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei received the speaker and members of the Parliament (Khamenei website)

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.



US will 'Walk Away' Unless Russia, Ukraine Agree Deal, Says Vance

A Ukrainian armoured vehicle in a village near the front line in the Dnipropetrovsk region - AFP
A Ukrainian armoured vehicle in a village near the front line in the Dnipropetrovsk region - AFP
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US will 'Walk Away' Unless Russia, Ukraine Agree Deal, Says Vance

A Ukrainian armoured vehicle in a village near the front line in the Dnipropetrovsk region - AFP
A Ukrainian armoured vehicle in a village near the front line in the Dnipropetrovsk region - AFP

Vice President JD Vance warned Wednesday that the United States would "walk away" unless Russia and Ukraine agree a peace deal, as envoys from Washington, Kyiv and European nations gathered for downgraded talks in Britain.

"We've issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it's time for them to either say 'yes', or for the United States to walk away from this process," Vance told reporters in India.

US media reported that President Donald Trump was ready to accept recognition of annexed land in Crimea as Russian territory, and Vance said land swaps would be fundamental to any deal, AFP reported.

"That means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own," he added.
The reports said the proposal was first raised at a meeting with European nations in Paris last week.

The latest round of diplomacy comes amid a fresh wave of Russian air strikes that shattered a brief Easter truce.

A Russian drone strike on a bus transporting workers in the southeastern city of Marganets killed nine people and wounded at least 30 more, the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor said Wednesday.

Ukrainian authorities also reported strikes in the regions of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Poltava and Odesa.

In Russia, one person was reported wounded by shelling in the Belgorod region.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy had been due to lead a meeting of foreign ministers in London on Wednesday, but his ministry said the talks had been downgraded, a sign of the difficulties surrounding the negotiations.

"The Ukraine Peace Talks meeting with Foreign Ministers today is being postponed. Official-level talks will continue," the Foreign Office said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that "as far as we understand, it has not yet been possible to reconcile positions on any issues, which is why this meeting did not take place".

US Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg is still expected to attend, along with Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said he had arrived in London with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, who is "likely" to meet Lammy.

"Despite everything, we will work for peace," Yermak wrote on Telegram.

A Ukraine presidency source later told AFP that the delegation would meet with Kellogg, and that "there will be more meetings with Europeans, different meetings".

US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff is to visit Moscow this week.

According to The Financial Times, President Vladimir Putin told Witkoff he was prepared to halt the invasion and freeze the current front line if Russia's sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula, annexed in 2014, was recognized.

Peskov responded by saying that "a lot of fakes are being published at the moment", according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

Zelensky said Tuesday that his country would be ready for direct talks with Russia only after a ceasefire, though the Kremlin has said it cannot rush into a ceasefire deal.

Trump promised on the campaign trail to strike a deal between Moscow and Kyiv in 24 hours but has since failed to secure concessions from Putin to halt his troops in Ukraine.

He said at the weekend he hoped an agreement could be struck "this week".

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had presented a US plan to end the war and discussed it with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during a phone conversation after the Paris meeting last week.

Both Rubio and Trump have warned since that the United States could walk away from peace talks unless it saw quick progress.

Trump "wants to see this war end... and he has grown frustrated with both sides of this war, and he's made that very known", his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

Rubio had said in Paris he would go to London if he thought his attendance could be useful.

But Lammy wrote on X late Tuesday that he had instead had a "productive call" with Rubio.

Trump proposed an unconditional ceasefire in March, the principle of which was accepted by Kyiv but rejected by Putin.

The White House welcomed a separate agreement by both sides to halt attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days, but the Kremlin has said it considers that moratorium to have expired.