Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) says a strategic action plan to counter sanctions, whose outlines were overwhelmingly endorsed by lawmakers, does not cause any harm to national interests following a public row between the administration and parliament. In a statement released on Saturday, Iran’s top security body said all different procedures of the plan’s drafting and its final approval have been carried out in accordance with the parliament’s normal and legal regulations and that the SNSC secretariat has not been involved.
The SNSC secretariat believes that the plan’s steps of formation, completion and approval “do not produce any specific issue to the detriment of national interests,” it added.
"In contrast, what is against national interests and a cause for concern is these controversies which have damaged the dignity and status of the country's legal institutions and harm national unity and solidarity,” the statement read.
“The recent remarks and attitudes that we have witnessed in recent days have sacrificed national interests for the sake of partisan interests, and while they have no benefit for the country, they convey the wrong message ...
to [Iran’s] enemies,” it added.
The statement emphasized that the SNSC secretariat is aware of the approach of some parties who seek to spread controversy and undermine its role, position and performance “but has no intention to respond to them.” It strongly advised all parties to end “fruitless disputes” and warned that it would not allow the interests of the country to become "a plaything in the hands of politicians." On Tuesday, 251 out of 260 Iranian lawmakers present at the parliament voted ‘yes’ to the outlines of the draft bill, which, if endorsed, will require the Iranian administration to suspend more commitments under the multilateral nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The plan, among other things, requires the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to produce at least 120 kg of 20-percent enriched uranium annually and store it inside the country within two months after the adoption of the law.
It also urges the AEOI to start the installation, gas injection, enrichment and storage of nuclear materials up to an appropriate enrichment degree within a period of three months using at least 1,000 IR-2m centrifuges.
During a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his administration “does not agree” with the bill, dubbed the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions.
During the parliament session on November 29, 232 lawmakers voted in favor of double urgency of the strategic motion.
On November 24, the parliament's Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy approved Articles 4 and 5 of “the Strategic Countermeasures against the Sanctions” motion.
Article 4 tasks the AEOI with setting up a “uranium metal production plant,” said the committee’s Spokesman Abolfazl Amouei, IRNA reported.
Article 5 requests the nuclear authority to draw up the plan and identify the suitable whereabouts for the establishment of a 40-megawatt heavy water reactor, he added.
US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the JCPOA in May 2018, and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism.
Since the much-criticized exit, Washington has been attempting to prevent the remaining signatories – Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany – from abiding by their commitments and thus kill the historic agreement, which is widely viewed as a fruit of international diplomacy.
Iran remained fully compliant with the JCPOA for an entire year, waiting for the co-signatories to fulfill their end of the bargain by offsetting the impacts of American bans on the Iranian economy.
But as the European parties failed to do so, the Islamic Republic moved in May 2019 to suspend its JCPOA commitments under Articles 26 and 36 of the deal that cover Tehran’s legal rights.
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