Abutalebi: Submission of the Bill on the Nuclear Agreement Depends on the 'Decision of the System'

While the Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament has stated that the submission of a bill regarding the Vienna nuclear agreement to the Parliament depends on the 'decision of the system', the Deputy Foreign Minister has also mentioned that the decision regarding the approving body of this agreement will be made at the level of 'high management of the system'. Abbas Araghchi, Deputy Foreign Minister and senior member of Iran's nuclear negotiation team, also pointed out that it is 'unclear' which of these two bodies will be the final decision-maker regarding the Vienna nuclear agreement. In an interview with the Saturday, August 31 issue of the newspaper Etemad, he emphasized that the decision about which body will approve the Vienna nuclear agreement is 'at the level of high management of the system'. A day before Mr. Araghchi's statement, Mohammad Hassan Abutalebi, Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, had said that the submission of the Vienna nuclear agreement bill by the government to the Parliament 'depends on the decision of the system'. Political figures in the Islamic Republic of Iran refer to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, with titles such as 'high-ranking officials of the system' and 'high management of the system'. Hassan Rouhani, the President, after the Vienna nuclear agreement, stated that the Supreme Leader was 'carefully monitoring' the nuclear negotiations with the 5+1 group and 'was precisely supervising' it. However, Hossein Shariatmadari, the representative of the Supreme Leader in the Kayhan newspaper, wrote in an editorial on Saturday, August 24, that Ayatollah Khamenei is 'not at all' satisfied with this agreement. Meanwhile, Mr. Araghchi emphasized in another part of his interview on Saturday with Etemad newspaper that the Vienna nuclear agreement should not be approved in the Parliament 'and turned into a law and legal obligation'. He reminded that other countries in the 5+1 group are not going to approve this agreement in their parliaments and added that the approval of this agreement in the Iranian Parliament 'questions the correspondence of the actions of both sides'. Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, announced on Thursday, August 29, that this council is currently in the final stages of reviewing the Vienna nuclear agreement. On the other hand, according to a law titled 'Obligation of the Government to Preserve Nuclear Achievements and Rights', the 'result of negotiations' regarding Iran's nuclear program must be 'presented to the Parliament', and at the same time, 201 members of the Parliament have asked the government to 'submit the Vienna nuclear agreement as soon as possible' in the form of a bill. However, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government spokesman, on Tuesday, August 27, described the request of the parliamentarians for the submission of a bill regarding the Vienna nuclear agreement (JCPOA) as 'against the constitution' and said that since this agreement does not reach the signature of the President or his representative, there is 'no need for parliamentary approval'. Meanwhile, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's Foreign Minister, also emphasized in an interview with the Alif website that the Vienna nuclear agreement 'is not an international agreement that requires parliamentary approval'. According to Mr. Zarif, this agreement is actually a way of 'managing' several Security Council resolutions that have been canceled by another resolution. The United Nations Security Council, on July 20, issued a resolution supporting the final agreement reached between Iran and the 5+1 group. Under this resolution, in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against Iran, Tehran will curb its nuclear program in the long term. Mr. Zarif also stated that the U.S. Congress is also 'not going to' approve the Vienna nuclear agreement. He added: 'The U.S. Congress has claimed a right for itself to reject this, and if it rejects it, the President can still implement it, and this is a point that many do not pay attention to.' The U.S. Congress has until September 17, less than a month away, to review and vote on the Iran nuclear agreement. In the U.S. Senate, Republicans need to rally 13 Democratic senators against the nuclear agreement, but if the number of Democratic senators supporting the agreement reaches 34, Congress will ultimately not be able to prevent a potential veto of the congressional decision by the U.S. President.