Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attended a meeting of the Majlis Foreign Policy and National Security Committee on Sunday to brief the lawmakers on the contents of the joint statement read out by him and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Thursday to announce a framework agreement between Iran and the major powers over Tehran's nuclear work.
The statement came after eight days of intensive talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne.
Zarif described the talks as "difficult", stressing that the American side was "untrustworthy" all over the course of negotiations, the spokesperson for the committee Hossein Naqavi Hosseini said on Sunday.
"Based on Zarif's explanations, there was no discrepancy between the two texts (of the statement) read out by him and Mogherini and it was the interpretation (of Mogherini's remarks broadcast live on some media) that was faulty."
A lot of criticism has been directed at the negotiating team over the past few days after the release of the statement by opponents accusing its members of failure to have Iran's full rights recognized in the initial agreement and claiming that the original text and the translated Persian version of the statement are inconsistent.
Conceptual Framework
Zarif went on to say that the statement only announced a "conceptual framework" of the prospective deal and writing down the main text of the final deal is "the next step which is a very difficult task," Naqavi Hosseini said.
The senior negotiator was asked to answer questions and clarify "ambiguities" and "misinterpretations" about the fact sheet released by the United States on the decisions made in Lausanne about the elements of the final nuclear accord, the lawmaker said. "The foreign minister said we will be negotiating until (the end of) June and we hope to reach a deal. However, there is no certainty that it will be achieved by then."
Zarif gave some explanation about the mechanism by which the United Nations resolutions against Iran will be terminated, as envisaged in the statement, Naqavi Hosseini said.
The statement said, "A new UN Security Council resolution will endorse the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – the official name of the final nuclear pact), terminate all previous nuclear-related resolutions and incorporate certain restrictive measures for a mutually agreed period of time."
The statement also said, "The EU will terminate the implementation of all nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions and the US will cease the application of all nuclear-related secondary economic and financial sanctions, simultaneously with the IAEA-verified implementation by Iran of its key nuclear commitments."
Asked to explain about the verb "cease" used in the text, the chief negotiator said that "if we had demanded that the sanctions be lifted (instead of being ceased), it would have to gain (the US) Congress' approval and we did not want to involve Congress," the lawmaker added. Zarif said after the meeting that he would provide supplementary and "complete explanations" on the details of the Lausanne agreement in a closed session of parliament on Tuesday.
