A senior nuclear negotiator said the bill recently passed by the US Senate to review a prospective nuclear deal with Iran will not significantly affect the ongoing nuclear talks with the major powers.
"The mere impact of the Senate's intervention in the negotiations is that it may delay the implementation of the nuclear deal for about two months."
"There will be no other impact," Abbas Araqchi, who attended a meeting of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee on Sunday to brief the lawmakers on the latest developments in the talks, was quoted by the spokesperson for the committee, Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, as saying.
The so-called Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, giving Congress the right to review, and potentially reject, any final nuclear deal with Iran, was overwhelmingly passed by the Senate last week.
After the Lausanne agreement, the two sides provided their own draft texts to be used in the recent rounds of talks in Vienna and New York to finally come up with a single final text of the deal, Araqchi said, adding, "Some of the many brackets in the negotiations have been removed, but others are still remaining. So there are still tough talks ahead," IRNA reported on Monday.
The negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany) to resolve the dispute over Tehran's nuclear program led to a framework agreement on the outline of the final accord, whose details are set to be finalized by the end of June.
"Even if Congress rejects the deal, the measure will face the presidential veto," Araqchi said, noting, "The approval of two-thirds of Congress will be required to override Obama's veto, which is something impossible."
The deputy foreign minister said, "Let's suppose that Congress overcomes the US president's veto. Who will suffer the consequences? Definitely the Americans."
"Because we will follow our path, while the move will undermine the unity among the P5+1 as well as the sanctions regime against Iran," he explained.
Elsewhere, on the sanctions, he said after the implementation of the deal "the US administration's sanctions will be lifted, US congressional sanctions will be scrapped by the administration and those of the European Union will be removed as well. Also, The UN Security Council's resolutions will be terminated."
"We have demanded that these measures be taken simultaneously" and some progress has been made in this relation, Araqchi added.
