Iran's Supreme Leader said on September 3 he favored a parliamentary vote on its nuclear deal reached with world powers and called for sanctions against Tehran to be lifted completely rather than suspended, state television reported.
President Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist whose 2013 election paved the way to a diplomatic thaw with the West, and his allies have opposed such a parliamentary vote, arguing this would create legal obligations complicating the deal's implementation.
“I have told the president that it is not in our interest to not let our lawmakers review the deal,” the top Shi'ite Muslim cleric said in remarks broadcast live on state TV.
The landmark pact, clinched on July 14 between Iran and the United States, Germany, France, Russia, China and Britain, would limit Iran's nuclear program to ensure it is not put to making bombs in exchange for a removal of economic sanctions.
Khamenei himself has not publicly endorsed or voiced opposition to the Vienna accord, although he has praised the work of the Islamic Republic's negotiating team.
A special committee of parliament, where conservative hardliners close to Khamenei are predominant, have begun reviewing the deal before putting it to a vote. But Rouhani's government has not prepared a bill for parliament to vote on.
Ali Larijani, Iran's parliament speaker, told reporters in New York on September 3 that Iranian lawmakers would likely debate the accord more heatedly than in the US Congress, where Republicans have sought to kill the deal.
