Members of Parliament Set Conditions for Negotiation Team: Enrichment Should Not Be Limited

Hours after the Iranian nuclear negotiation team traveled to Vienna to begin a new round of talks, 220 members of Parliament issued a statement demanding that "research and development in enrichment" be subject to "no limitations" and that military sites in the country not be subject to oversight over Iran's nuclear facilities. According to the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), these members of Parliament declared in a statement published on Wednesday, April 21, that the "do's and don'ts" of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic should be the "basis" for Iran's nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 group. The statement emphasized that in any final agreement with the P5+1, "research and development in technology, enrichment, and nuclear sciences should not be subject to any limitations." The demands of these members of Parliament come as reports from the Lausanne agreement indicate that Iran has committed to not constructing any new equipment for enrichment for 15 years and to suspend some of its enrichment activities during this time. In their statement on Wednesday, the members of Parliament stressed that oversight of Iran's nuclear facilities should not include military centers and industries or locations that "would break national pride and humiliate the Iranian people." Military officials of the Islamic Republic have repeatedly emphasized that they will not allow inspections of Iran's military sites. For instance, Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned on Saturday, April 18, that the Islamic Republic would respond to visits to its military sites with "hot lead." Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has emphasized that any agreement with Iran will include oversight of Iran's military facilities. In the statement of the 220 members of Parliament, it was requested that "no specific oversight beyond the NPT" and also oversight that "endangers the security of nuclear scientists" be agreed upon. Previously, some members of Parliament, including Jawad Karimi Qodousi, a representative from Mashhad, warned about Iran's commitment to convert the International Atomic Energy Agency's "offline cameras" in Iran's nuclear facilities to "online cameras," stating that this action goes beyond the framework of the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Meanwhile, after the presence of Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister, and Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, in a closed session of Parliament on Tuesday, April 17, Gholamali Jafarzadeh Eymani, a representative from Rasht, quoted Mr. Zarif as saying that due to the experience of "identifying and assassinating" its nuclear scientists in the past, Iran would not accept the installation of online cameras in its nuclear facilities. The members of Parliament also stated that the subject of negotiations between Iran and global powers is "only the nuclear issue" and that international and regional issues and "defending the oppressed of the world, which is part of the nature of the Islamic Revolution," should not be negotiated. Hours before the publication of this statement, Marzieh Afkham, the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, in response to a report by the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, confirmed a phone call between the foreign ministers of Iran and the U.S., stating that this conversation was "based on the necessity of discussions within the same nuclear framework" and was not about the Yemen crisis. The 220 members of Parliament also requested that the Iranian nuclear negotiation team block "any path for interpretation, misuse, and deviation" in drafting the final agreement. Previously, Sadeq Amoli Larijani, the head of Iran's judiciary, and some other close associates of the Supreme Leader, including Ahmad Khatami, the Friday prayer leader of Tehran, had asked the Iranian negotiation team to write the details of the agreement with the P5+1 countries "clearly." The lifting of sanctions on Iran "in the first step comprehensively and all at once" was another demand raised in the statement of the members of Parliament. Abbas Araqchi, a senior member of Iran's nuclear negotiation team, mentioned that sanctions are "at the top of the agenda" for the new round of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group. The Iranian nuclear team departed for Vienna, the capital of Austria, on Wednesday morning, April 21, to continue nuclear talks with the P5+1. Iran and the P5+1 have until July 1 to negotiate details and reach a comprehensive and final agreement on the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic after reaching a framework agreement in Lausanne, Switzerland.