Ali Younesi (center) with President Hassan Rouhani (right) and Ali Larijani, the current chairman of the Iranian parliament, at a conference on Iran’s Nuclear Policies and Prospects in Tehran in 2006.. (photo credit:RAHEB HOMAVANDI/REUTERS)[/caption]
“Injurious measures against the nuclear agreement have reached such a point that there is no way left for Iran but to counteract,” Ali Larijani says.Iran is left with no choice but to confront the US, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani warned Wednesday.
Iran’s Press TV quoted Larijani as issuing the warning in light of legislation proposed by US opponents to the Iran nuclear deal to further sanction the Islamic Republic and the UN’s first bi-annual report on the deal’s implementation released earlier this week which suggested that Iran was not following “the spirit of the deal.”
“Majlis (Iranian Parliament), utterly regretting the UN chief’s move, is warning the US administration and its House of Representatives and Senate that injurious measures against the nuclear agreement have reached such a point that there is no way left for Iran but to counteract,” Larijani stated.
Discussing Ban’s report, Larijani said, “On the one hand, the Secretary General says in his report that Iran’s commitment is encouraging, and on the other, he makes no reference to Iran’s concerns and complaints about the non-implementation of all of the P5+1’s obligations.”
The Iranian parliament speaker accused Ban of a one-sided approach, asking, “Had the Secretary General been tasked with producing a report on both side’s fulfillment of their obligations or is he the P5+1’s monitor in this?”
In calling out Iran, the UN report specifically mentioned the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile tests which contravened a UN Security Council Resolution.
Larijani countered that the nuclear agreement itself, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), makes no mention of Iran’s ballistic missiles and the resolution in question, UN Resolution 2231, and only orders Iran not to design ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
“Has Iran designed any such thing? Why would the UN chief then declare that the spirit of the JCPOA has been violated?” Press TV quoted Larijani as asking.
Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi warned Wednesday that if US-led parties continue to disrespect the nuclear deal, Iran has the capabilities to resume uranium enrichment at even a higher level than before the agreement.
“We can go to better conditions compared with the past as quickly as possible,”Salehi was quoted as saying by Iran’s Fars News Agency.
“Of course, this will happen if the other side violates the nuclear deal and this violation will be confirmed by the board (in Iran) which supervises (implementation of) the nuclear deal.” he added.
