TEHRAN, Sept. 3 (UPI) — Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the Iranian Parliament to vote on the proposed nuclear agreement with Western powers.
The demand was announced Thursday by state media, one day after U.S. President Barack Obama received an assurance the deal, which blocks Iran from developing nuclear weapons for 10 years in exchange for sanctions relief, would be approved by U.S. legislators later in September.
The announcement comes amid rejection from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who says the agreement does not require parliamentary approval since it is not technically an international treaty.
Khamenei told an audience of Muslim clerics in Tehran that Parliament “should not be bypassed” in considering the agreement, stopping short of endorsing or rejecting it. He added, though, he would oppose the agreement if sanctions were not lifted entirely instead of merely suspended.
“If the sanctions are not removed, there will be no deal. I don’t have any advice to the Parliament about how to examine it, approval or disapproval,” he said, blaming “badly speaking American officials, who are making statements, saying the structure of the sanctions must remain intact” for any misinterpretation.
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