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WEDNESDAY FEATURE

White House Yields, Gives Congress Role in Approval of Nuclear Agreement

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has assured that the Government is engaging the critics of Iran’s nuclear talks with the US and the other 5+1 Powers.

Speaking during a conference in Spain, Zarif said on Tuesday:

The Supreme Leader…gave orders for us to talk to all the skeptics and critics Indicating that the process of engaging the critics has begun….Again, we will continue these discussions, and I think that the series of measures we have carried out implement the Leader’s requests.

The Government has been pressed by some hardliners since the April 2 nuclear framework was announced, with a view to a comprehensive settlement by June 30. It has received important backing from the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, and Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani. Most importantly, the Supreme Leader has continued to support Iran’s negotiators, although he has warned of the “dishonesty” of the US.

Public dispute in Iran has centered upon a US fact sheet, issued hours after the framework, setting out its provisions. Iranian officials, including the Supreme Leader, have challenged the American assertion that sanctions relief will be “phased”, rather than immediate upon signature of the deal. However, Zarif has implicitly come close to the US position that the restrictions will be lifted as soon as the International Atomic Energy Agency verifies compliance with terms of the comprehensive agreement.

Zarif maintained a cautious line on Tuesday, as the Government was pressed to produce its own fact sheet:

The Supreme Leader stated [that] as the Americans have published a fact sheet, [we must] communicate [our] viewpoints to the people. In the beginning, before the Americans released a fact sheet – not an official document because an official document doesn’t exist – we provided the public with the details of the agreement.

However, the statement is unlikely to close the debate: on Tuesday 213 MPs addressed a statement to Zarif requesting publication of the Iranian fact sheet:

Since no credible text on the part of the Islamic Republic is available other than the joint statement, and because the explanations and interpretations of the Foreign Ministry can be useful for examining and clarifying stances and the viewpoints of critics can help in drafting the final text properly, we ask the Ministry to release the Iranian fact sheet.

The MPs also put out their own “fact sheet”, with significant differences from that issued by the US. It says the agreement over uranium enrichment is only for five years, rather than 10 or 15. It claims that there are no restrictions on research and development, with a view to output in 2021 of 190,000 Separative Work Units — about 20 times Iran’s current capacity — set as a goal by the Supreme Leader last year.

The legislators maintained the ambiguous declaration, put out by President Rouhani this week, that sanctions would be lifted on “the very first day of implementation” of a comprehensive deal.

12-entry non-stop cycle of research and development to industrial enrichment

The Foreign Minister said that talks will resume with the 5+1 Powers on April 21, at the level of political deputies.

(Hat top to Iran Tracker for translations)

MPs Give “Yellow Card” Warning to Communications Minister over Internet

MPs have issued a “yellow card” warning to Communications Minister Mahmoud Vaezi, claiming Government failure in “cyberspace”.

Of 195 MPs present, 99 voted against Vaezi’s explanations, with 70 supporting him and 11 abstaining.

Legislators said long-heralded plans for a “National Internet” have shown very little progress, declaring that the government has “no role in managing cyberspace, while management and dominance in this area is in the hands of America”.

Vaezi responded that progress on the National Internet requires a wider broadband, which has been resisted by some hardline clerics and MPs.

Defense Minister: We Will Receive Russian S-300 Missiles This Year

En route to Moscow to sign a contract for delivery of Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said the first deliveries will be this year.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin suddenly announced that the contract for the missiles, suspended since its signature in 2010, would be fulfilled.

See Iran Daily, April 14: Russia Makes Power Play with Supply of Advanced Missiles to Tehran

Iran’s 4-Point Plan to Stop War in Yemen

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif set out “Iran’s four-point plan to stop the war in Yemen” on Tuesday at a conference in Spain.

Zarif proposed “a ceasefire, humanitarian aid, domestic dialogue in Yemen, and the formation of an inclusive government, …[and] the end of Saudi-led airstrikes against the Yemeni people”.

The proposal follows a series of Iranian diplomatic initiatives since the Saudi-led aerial attacks began in Yemen last month, including a meeting between President Rouhani and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Zarif’s discussions in Oman and Pakistan.

The Supreme Leader’s top foreign policy advisor, Ali Akbar Velayati, said to Pakistani Ambassador Nour Mohammad Jadmani on Tuesday, “We demand the international bodies to exert pressure on Saudi Arabia to pave the way for Muslim countries’ aid to Yemen; the Saudi Navy has besieged the Yemeni ports and they do not allow the flow of humanitarian aid from either Muslim or non-Muslim countries to Yemen.”

Velayati denied claims of Iranian military intervention: “If you find a single Iranian in Yemen, then you could say that there are signs of Iranian interference in Yemen.”

Meanwhile, Zarif also held out the prospect of “engagement” with the Saudis, a Government goal endangered by the crisis, “Iran and Saudi Arabia need to talk, but we cannot talk to determine the future of Yemen.”

IAEA in Tehran for Technical Talks on Nuclear Program

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency are in Iran for their latest round of technical talks with Iranian officials, two weeks after Iran and the 5+1 Powers put out a framework for a comprehensive nuclear agreement.

Led by Deputy Director-General Tero Varjoranta, the five specialists arrived in Tehran on Wednesday morning for a day of discussions.

In November 2013 the IAEA and Iran agreed a Framework of Cooperation. A February document outlined a further seven actions that Tehran would take by August, assuring that its nuclear program was only for civil purposes.

The IAEA says that Iran has not still not met two of the steps: provision of information on experiments with large-scale high explosives, and supply of information on “neutron transport and associated modelling and calculations”.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the meeting will focus on “neutron calculations” and “alleged explosives testing at a site in the western city of Marivan”. However, he claimed, “Tehran has already responded to all of the IAEA’s questions about Iran’s nuclear program.”

On April 2, Iran and the 5+1 Powers (US, Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia) put out the nuclear framework with a view to a comprehensive settlement by a June 30 deadline. No date for the resumption of talks has been set, however, as the US and Iran have publicly fenced over the issue of the timing of sanctions relief.