But the parliament also warned the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany that if sanctions are not lifted, or that there is any other similar violation of the deal, Iran would unilaterally speed up its uranium enrichment program.
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Both approvals in Iran were widely expected, despite opposition to the deal from hard-liners opposed to any opening to the West. Iranian lawmakers approved the plan by a large margin after contentious debate.
“Negotiations with the United States open gates to their economic, cultural, political and security influence”, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on his website.
Preparing for “adoption day”, Iran’s parliament passed on Tuesday a bill supporting the parameters of the nuclear agreement.
The bill was passed with 161 votes for, 59 against and 13 abstentions.
But Khamenei has not rejected the accord outright and has praised the work of the negotiating team of President Hassan Rouhani, who has made it the major priority of his presidency.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian president once again expressed his condolences over the September 24 deadly crush during the Hajj rituals in Mina, near the holy Saudi city of Mecca, and said the causes of the tragic incident should be clarified for the Muslim world and the Iranian nation.
And inspections of military sites, one of the most contentious areas of the deal, will be decided on a case by case basis by Iran’s highest security committee, the Supreme National Security Council.
Opponents of the diplomacy, including Israeli and American legislators, say it will bolster Iran’s influence in the region and will not halt a dash for nuclear weapons should the Islamic republic want them. Rouhani told Kishida at the outset of the meeting that Iran hopes to expand cooperation with Japan after bilateral relations stalled amid worldwide sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation.
The draft bill also says Iran should resume all nuclear activity that it would halt as part of the deal, if the other side fails to meet its obligations to lift sanctions.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday that the Guardian Council ratified the bill that implements the nuclear deal reached between Tehran and world powers.
In Iran, engineers and technicians will have to begin mothballing centrifuges at the Natanz and Fordo enrichment facilities as well as retrofitting a heavy-water reactor in Arak.
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This, mind you, is the resolution that Obama ran to the U.N.to get before Congress was permitted to review and vote on the Iran deal.
