Velayati: The Foreign Ministry is Preparing a Plan to Counter the Senate's Resolution

Ali Akbar Velayati, advisor to the Leader of Iran, announced that the Foreign Ministry will present a plan to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) oversight committee to counter the U.S. Senate's recent sanctions package against Iran. The Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council also considered the approval of a law by the parliament as 'one of the most influential actions' in this regard. On Sunday, June 18, Velayati stated that a meeting of the JCPOA oversight committee was held last week, and it was decided that the Foreign Ministry would prepare a plan to address the U.S. Senate's sanctions resolution. He suggested that the next meeting of the oversight committee would take place in the coming days after the Foreign Ministry's plan is ready. This member of the oversight committee had previously described the U.S. Senate's resolution on June 15 as 'contrary to the spirit and letter of the JCPOA' and announced that the committee would provide an 'appropriate response' to this 'violation of the JCPOA.' However, two days later, Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran's ambassador to London and a former member of the nuclear negotiation team, stated that the inconsistency of the U.S. Senate's resolution with the Vienna nuclear agreement 'requires careful expert examination' and that it should not be reacted to 'hastily.' On the same day, the state news agency IRNA quoted 'an informed Iranian source' stating that the European Union, Russia, and China do not consider this resolution to be a violation of the Vienna nuclear agreement. On June 15, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new sanctions package against the Islamic Republic of Iran, known as the 'Countering Iran's Destabilizing Activities Act.' This package imposes mandatory sanctions on any individual or entity associated with Iran's ballistic missile program and those doing business with it. This package, which will become law after being approved by the House of Representatives and signed by the U.S. President, received the affirmative votes of 98 U.S. senators, with only Republican Senator Rand Paul and independent Senator Bernie Sanders voting against it. The National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian Parliament has approved a plan to counter the Senate's resolution, which must be voted on in the parliament's open session. Meanwhile, Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, stated on Sunday that 'one of the most influential actions to mobilize the country's capacities in dealing with this resolution is to adopt legally binding mechanisms, which the Islamic Consultative Assembly will undertake.' Shamkhani is the Secretary, and Hassan Rouhani is the head of the JCPOA oversight committee. Other members include Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Parliament, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Foreign Minister, Hossein Dehghan, the Minister of Defense, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization, Saeed Jalili, the representative of the Leader of the Islamic Republic in the Supreme National Security Council, and Ali Akbar Velayati, advisor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mohammad Javad Zarif also described the U.S. Senate's move to draft new sanctions against Iran as 'short-sighted,' and Abbas Araqchi, the head of the JCPOA implementation follow-up committee, stated that Iran assesses the implementation of the new U.S. sanctions as a violation of the JCPOA.