Request by 17 Representatives of the Stability Front to Halt Review of the JCPOA Plan

Seventeen representatives opposed to the nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers (JCPOA) have criticized Ali Larijani and asked him to stop the review of the urgent plan in the public session of the parliament on Sunday. In a letter addressed to Ali Larijani, these representatives have once again called for the nuclear agreement to be presented as a bill by the government to the parliament. This letter, published on Saturday, October 10, by the Fars News Agency, was signed by Morteza Aqa Tehrani, Ahmad Salek, Rouhollah Hosseinian, Hamid Rasai, Mahmoud Nabavian, Nasrollah Pezeshkianfar, Ismail Kowsari, Masoud Mir Kazemi, Mohammad Soleimani, Habibollah Aghajeri, Zahra Tayebzadeh, Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh, Shahrooz Afkhami, Hossein Tala, Shakarkhoda Mousavi, Ali Asghar Zarei, and Bahram Piranvand, all members of the Stability Front and conservatives opposed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). They have accused Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Parliament, and the presiding board of acting contrary to the internal regulations of the parliament, despite the establishment of a special commission for the JCPOA which has prepared a 'solid, comprehensive, and expert' report. They claim that a two-urgent plan aimed at 'neutralizing' the special commission's report has been prepared in a 'completely biased' manner and is to be rushed to the parliament's public session on Sunday despite being rejected twice and approved once. The signatories added that while the presiding board has even refrained from presenting this plan to the special commission, it has referred it to the National Security Commission, which hastily approved the plan without reviewing all proposals, effectively 'closing the JCPOA file,' while other subsidiary commissions either lacked the time to address it or did not reach a quorum for approval. They accused the presiding board of 'hasty behavior' contrary to the 'repeated emphasis' of the Iranian leader for a thorough legal review of the JCPOA and described the nuclear agreement as a document under which sanctions will not be lifted, military sites will be inspected, and it will facilitate foreign domination over natural and economic resources, culture, the military, and other aspects of the country, while also depriving the Islamic Republic of the ability to support the 'struggles of the oppressed of the world' alongside UN Security Council Resolution 2231. The 17 representatives continued in their letter to Ali Larijani that the reason the government of Hassan Rouhani does not want to present the JCPOA in the form of a bill for parliament approval is that it intends to place the responsibility for approving this agreement on the parliament. They asked the Speaker, 'Why, contrary to Article 74 of the Constitution, was the JCPOA not presented as a bill and signed by the President or the Foreign Minister, but rather by the deputy of Mr. Zarif and addressed to your office?' The signatories described the government's failure to present the JCPOA bill as 'illegal tradition-breaking' and this agreement as 'an agreement that, in addition to the continuation of sanctions, poses serious threats to the national security of the country,' stating that 'no plan that contains the name JCPOA or implicitly endorses it' should be reviewed in parliament until the government presents its bill. They emphasized that even if the parliament, under the intervention of Ali Larijani and his supporters, approves the urgent plan of the JCPOA, 'the Guardian Council will not allow such approval.' Alireza Zakani, the head of the special JCPOA commission in parliament, also stated on Saturday that the failure to refer the urgent plan to this commission is against the regulations and the words of Ayatollah Khamenei, calling the implementation of this agreement 'catastrophic.' Meanwhile, the ISNA news agency published the full text of the urgent JCPOA plan on Saturday, titled 'Proportional and Reciprocal Action of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Implementing the JCPOA,' which was approved on October 5 in the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission and is set to be reviewed in the parliament's public session tomorrow. The urgent plan for the JCPOA has been reviewed in several other commissions in addition to the National Security Commission and has been approved with requests for minor changes, but only the Cultural Commission of the parliament, whose president, vice president, and several members are among the signatories of this letter, rejected it due to 'non-compliance with national interests.' The JCPOA plan allows the government to implement the comprehensive action plan (JCPOA) 'within the framework of the resolutions of the Supreme National Security Council' and with certain conditions. The urgency of this plan was approved with 168 votes in favor on October 4. Meanwhile, Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, stated on Saturday that the prolonged gap between the approval of the JCPOA and the start of its implementation is 'problematic' for the Iranian economy.