A member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said in response to the US Congress legislation, the committee is drafting a bill which demands a more assertive approach by the government in the nuclear negotiations with the major powers to help safeguard Iran's nuclear achievements.
"The bill roughly corresponds to the legislation recently passed by the US House of Representatives, stipulating that any final nuclear deal with Iran should be subject to congressional review before being concluded," Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani told IRNA on Monday.
Iranian negotiators are in talks with their counterparts from the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany) to iron out the details of the final deal on Tehran's nuclear program by an end-of-June deadline, whose framework was agreed on last month in the Swiss city of Lausanne. The so-called Iran Nuclear Review Act, giving the US Congress the right to review any final agreement, was overwhelmingly passed by the House on Thursday and only requires President Barak Obama's signature to become law.
Earlier, the spokesman for the committee had said the measure by the Majlis would ensure that the lifting of all sanctions, whether nuclear-related or not, was "explicitly" and "transparently" enshrined in the text of the final accord. "Members of the committee believe that the lifting of all sanctions, nuclear and non-nuclear, should be explicitly and transparently mentioned in the deal so that it will be implemented immediately after the deal is finalized," Hossein Naqavi Hosseini was quoted by IRNA as saying after a meeting of the committee on Sunday, adding, "It was decided that a committee will be set up in this regard."
He warned if the deal did not stipulate the removal of all sanctions at once, the Islamic Republic would consider null and void the commitments it had already undertaken in the negotiations and the government would be obliged to resume the operation of enrichment facilities and the Arak heavy water reactor and the production of enriched uranium to the purity level of 20 percent and prevent any inspection or monitoring of its nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
In that case, "given the considerable flexibility and cooperation Iran has demonstrated in the talks, the Americans' obstructive measures and excessive demands will be responsible for the failure of the talks," he added.
