US And Iranian Officials Urge Approval Of The Vienna Nuclear Accord
Iran’s deputy foreign minister Saturday urged a speedy approval in Tehran of the nuclear accord.
Abbas Araghchi’s comments come as US Secretary of State John Kerry and members of his nuclear negotiating team are being grilled in the US Congress 2 weeks into a 60-day review of the deal by the Washington lawmakers.
A similar process is under way in Iran’s parliament, where some MPs argue that the agreement has jeopardized the country’s nuclear program.
The deal between Iran and 5P+1 UN world powers led by the United States must be approved by Iran’s top security committee and parliament before it can be finally implemented.
“We should announce our opinion quickly so if the Congress decided to reject the deal, the onus of such rejection and failure of talks would fall on Congress,” Mr. Araghchi said, not naming lawmakers but signalling the need for their endorsement.
“In that case we will not suffer any losses and we can return to our normal program,” he told Iranian state television’s political editors. “Then the world would say that Iran went through its legal process and approved the agreement yet the Congress destroyed the whole thing.”
Sec. Kerry said it would be embarrassing to him and a blow to American credibility on the world stage if the Republican-led Congress rejects the deal to put an atomic bomb out of Iran’s reach.
Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon.
US President Barack Hussein Obama can veto Congress and keep the deal alive.
Mr. Araghchi, effectively the number 2 negotiator for Iran in the nuclear talks behind Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, spoke ahead of President Hassan Rouhani’s live televised speech Sunday night which is expected to focus on the nuclear deal.
Israel and other opponents believe the nuclear accord does not achieve its primary objective of halting Iran’s nuclear program and closing all ways to a bomb. Mr. Obama’s White House says it does that exactly.
President Rouhani’s government has been trying to convince conservatives that the concessions made in the deal are not detrimental to its ambitions of producing nuclear energy, saying that the sanctions relief is worth the limitations.
Despite Mr. Araghchi’s call for a speedy approval, Iranian lawmakers are believed to be awaiting the outcome of Congress’s review before they announce their final decision.
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