PHOTO: Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran’s Supreme Leader completed the process of endorsing the July 14 nuclear deal with the 5+1 Powers, publishing an open letter to President Rouhani on Wednesday.

The Supreme Leader’s office had already paved the way for the implementation of the deal last week, holding a meeting that finally ended a weeks-long Parliamentary stalemate. The Majlis formally voted for the deal on Tuesday, followed by the Guardian Council’s acceptance on Wednesday.

Ayatollah Khamenei — posting the letter in English as well as Farsi — cloaked the endorsement in a series of conditions, the most significant of which concerned the removal of sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Khamenei said there must be a “written declaration by the US President and the European Union” that the restrictions “will be fully lifted”. He also drew a line against any “snap-back” re-imposition of sanctions, not only over claimed Iranian violations of the deal but also over human rights and support of terrorism.

Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, US and European Union sanctions are to be lifted or suspended after the International Atomic Energy Agency verifies Iranian compliance. The Rouhani Government is hoping for that verification by mid-December.

The need for that verification, and the removal of sanctions, has become more pressing because of Iran’s economic problems. Last month, four Ministers warned Rouhani that the country faces a further downturn in production and growth, and on Tuesday the President’s top advisor cautioned that it will be a “hard winter”, with the Government struggling to finance the 2016-2017 budget. He also said it would be “at least six months” before the process of sanctions removal could be in place.

In his letter to Rouhani, the Supreme Leader also tried to show firmness with the proclamation that arrangements to convert the under-construction Arak heavy-water reactor, reducing its plutonium by-product, will not confirmed until the IAEA verification. He said that Iran’s movement of uranium outside the country, selling it to foreign countries, will also await that declaration.

Neither of those conditions is central to implementation, with the 5+1 Powers focusing immediately on the reduction of Iran’s on-line uranium centrifuges from 19,000 to just over 5,000.

In a further pose, the Supreme Leader said that Iran must be able to meet its long-term goals of uranium enrichment — including his figure of 190,000 Separative Work Units, almost 20 times its pre-deal capacity — but only after the time limits in the JCPOA have ended.

Significantly, Khamenei’s conclusion returned to the vital issue of economic recovery and freedom from sanctions. He said his Resistance Economy, ensuring Iran’s self-sufficiency, must be “taken seriously and followed up on entirely”.