The draft agreement between Iran and world powers over the possible restoration of the so-called nuclear deal is incompatible with a recently passed Iranian law, a government spokesman in Tehran said on Tuesday.
According to a statement from Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei published on Iran's government website and carried by Bloomberg, the Supreme National Security Council of Iran considers the draft agreement in breach of a new Iranian law passed in December 2020. The law obliged the Iranian government to limit inspections to nuclear sites and to expand uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes.
The new Iranian legislation, entitled "Strategic Action Plan to Lift Sanctions and Protect Iranian Nation's Interest," is "part of a broader strategy that aims to retrieve the lost balance in the implementation of the JCPoA, the root-causes of which was the United States withdrawal from the deal and its re-imposition of sanctions on Iran and their extra-territorial nature and impacts," Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) early this year.
"In fact, this bill seeks to act in such a way as to provide another opportunity to save the JCPoA through lifting sanctions," Iran said in its communication dated January 29, 2021.
According to Bloomberg, it was not immediately clear if the position of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran would impact in some form the nuclear talks in Vienna, which are currently on hiatus.
The talks, aimed at bringing the United States and Iran back to the so-called nuclear deal, have been going on for months now. The negotiations are currently adjourned until Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi takes over in early August.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, quoting U.S. officials and sources, that the United States was considering clamping down on Iran's rising oil exports to China as a tool to either force Tehran to conclude a nuclear deal or punish it if it does not.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More
Comments
That is why I have been repeatedly saying that a lifting of US sanctions won’t see the light of day even by 2023 or ever. The reason is that the positions of the United States and Iran are irreconcilable.
Moreover, the United States has to consider the unthinkable possibility that Iran with its success in evading US sanctions and exporting more than 1.5 million barrels a day (mbd) or 71% of its pre-sanction exports might be willing to accept the continuation of the sanctions as a small price to pay for forcing the ejection of US forces from Iraq and Syria thus achieving a spectacular geopolitical victory over the United States.
Alternatively, Iran’s new hardline President Ebrahim Raisi and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) might be trying to derail the negotiations with the P5+1 unless they secure a deal on their own terms.
Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
International Oil Economist
Visiting Professor of Energy Economics at ESCP Europe Business School, London