Iran Accepts Nothing Beyond Additional Protocol, Says Araqchi

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi underscored that restrictions and supervisions on the country’s nuclear program are limited to the NPT Additional Protocol, FNA reported.

“The entire Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is within the framework of the Additional Protocol and all restrictions and supervisions are within this framework and nothing beyond,” Araqchi told the parliament’s news website on Monday.

Reiterating that no paragraphs of the JCPOA includes anything which requires Iran to act beyond the Additional Protocol, he said, “There are one or two exceptional cases in the JCPOA on the type of supervision but it is totally different from what is described by certain countries as ‘(Additional) Protocol plus’ and there will be no supervision beyond the Additional Protocol.”

Iran and the world powers reached a final agreement in Vienna on July 14 to end a 13-year-old nuclear standoff.

A week later, the UNSC unanimously endorsed a draft resolution turning into international law the JCPOA reached between Iran and the 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) group of countries over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Now the US Congress and the Iranian parliament have less than 60 days to review the deal to approve or reject its practice.

The Additional Protocol is a legal document that supplements States’ IAEA safeguards agreements. It grants the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) complementary legal authority to verify a State’s safeguards obligations.

Nuclear Agreement not equal to shared regional policies with US, says Larijani

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani reminded Washington’s hostile policies against Tehran, and underlined that the nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the world powers in Vienna in mid July would not mean that the Islamic Republic and the US have the same regional policies.

“The question is whether the recent developments and (Vienna) negotiations mean that Iran and the western countries are moving in the same direction; the response (to this question) is surely negative because Iran has always followed its own path and it is them (the western countries) who need us,” Larijani said, addressing a ceremony in the city of Mashhad, Northeastern Iran, on Monday.

The Iranian parliament speaker reiterated that the western countries have realized that their problems (in the region) will not be resolved without Iran’s role-playing.

“Recognizing Iran’s enrichment right by the West showed that the European countries and the US have realized Iran’s progress in different fields; Iran’s resistance and endurance helped the country to achieve its goals and made the West fail in preventing Iran from continuing its peaceful nuclear program,” Larijani said.

R.S