Iran Assails U.S. Plan for a Vote in Congress
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Version 0 of 1. TEHRAN — Iran’s president on Wednesday dismissed the compromise worked out between the Obama administration and Congress over an impending nuclear agreement as internal American politics, saying the Iranians were negotiating with six countries, not just with the United States. The president, Hassan Rouhani, also repeated Iran’s position that onerous economic sanctions that have been imposed on the country for years by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union must be lifted with the signing of any final agreement. The remarks by Mr. Rouhani, a prime architect of a framework nuclear agreement reached April 2 with the so-called P5-plus-1 group of powers — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — amounted to the first official Iranian reaction to a compromise reached on Tuesday between the White House and the Senate over the nuclear negotiations. In what was seen by some as a setback for the White House, the compromise, in the form of a Senate bill, would give lawmakers a greater say in the terms of a final deal, which negotiators of Iran and the P5-plus-1 group are working to complete by June 30. Republicans and some Democrats in Congress, highly suspicious of Iran’s motivations, have expressed worry that provisions of the framework agreement are too lenient toward Iran and would leave it with the capacity to divert nuclear energy enrichment to make bombs, despite Iran’s guarantees that its purposes are peaceful. Israel’s government, which considers Iran its most dangerous enemy, has expressed the same doubts. “I declare here that whatever the U.S. Senate says and what the House of Representatives and radicals in America are after, what the mercenaries in the region say, is not related to our nation and the government,” Mr. Rouhani said during a speech in northern Iran reported by state news media. “We request cooperation for cooperation, good will for good will, respect for respect,” Mr. Rouhani said. “We declare to you that we are not negotiating with the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. The party we are negotiating with is called the P5-plus-1 group.” Mr. Rouhani drew loud applause by emphasizing Iran’s position that any nuclear agreement was predicated on a termination of all the sanctions, which have severely impaired the country’s economy. “Let the world, the P5-plus-1, the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, the U.S. president and the U.S. government, let everybody know that if there is not going to be an end to sanctions in this round of the talks, there is not going to be a deal,” he said. “At the end of these talks and upon the time of signing the deal there should be an announcement on the end and lifting of the oppressive sanctions against the Iranian nation.” In Israel, officials welcomed the compromise reached in Washington, with Yuval Steinitz, the minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, describing the congressional move as “an achievement for Israeli policy.” He credited the March 3 speech in Congress by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “decisive” in developing the bill, which Mr. Steinitz called “a very important element in preventing a bad deal.” “This is more pressure and another barrier in the face of a bad agreement,” Mr. Steinitz, who lobbied in London and Paris before the framework was announced, said on Israel Radio on Wednesday. “Therefore the administration and the negotiating team will make more of an effort to seal gaps and to achieve an agreement that looks better, or is at least more reasonable, so that it will pass in Congress.” |