McInnis served as the senior expert on Iran at the U.S. Central Command from 2010 to 2013, and worked with General David Petraeus GS ’85 ’87 and General Ray Odierno to increase the government’s awareness of Iran’s military capabilities.
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Iranian officials have said sanctions should be lifted by the end of the year or January at the latest.
Iranian state television reported that the Guardian Council, one of the top leadership bodies in Iran’s cleric-ruled system, gave final approval to a bill passed by parliament to implement the deal.
The footage also came a day after Iran’s parliament approved the country’s July 14 nuclear deal with six world powers. The gesture was viewed by many as another positive sign of Iran’s thawing relations with the West, but has irritated the country’s conservatives opposed to improved ties with the United States.
The questioning of Zarif was relatively mild compared to the rowdy parliamentary session on October 11, when one MP hardliner threatened to kill one of Iran’s nuclear negotiators and head of the Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Akbar Salehi.
The tunnel, hundreds of metres (yards) long and about 10 metres high, was filled with missiles and hardware.
McInnis said Iran’s anti-Western stance stems from the last 200 years of its history.
Hajizadeh said Iran would not start any war but “if enemies make a mistake, missile bases will erupt like a volcano from the depth of earth”.
President Rouhani thanked the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and praised the assembly for ratifying the deal.
The deal had been approved by the parliament in Tehran on Tuesday despite opposition by hardliners.
Sceptical members of Congress, including a few in Obama’s own party, say the deal’s nuclear oversight measures do not go far enough and would allow Tehran to acquire a weapon once key provisions expire. The White House has said that there were “strong indications” that Iran violated Security Council resolutions with the launch.
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While Iran had been trying to obtain a deal since the early 2000s under the Ahmadinejad regime, the current situation in the Middle East finally made the deal a possibility.
