Two-Stage Nuclear Deal Aimed at Playing Games with Iran, MP Warns
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A top Iranian lawmaker cautioned the countries’ team of negotiators engaged in nuclear talks with world powers against a two-phase agreement on Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program, saying such a proposition is meant to play with Iran.
“I believe the purpose of the Westerners and members of the Group 5+1 in proposing an agreement in two political and detailed stages is to play games with Iran’s nuclear issue,” Esmail Kowsari, member of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, told Tasnim on Monday.
He made it clear that dividing a long-awaited deal on Tehran’s nuclear case into two parts will be detrimental to Iran.
Kowsari warned that Washington has proposed a two-phase agreement to entangle Iran in subjects other than the nuclear talks.
“Americans’ purpose in proposing a two-stage deal with Iran is (to bring up) subjects other than the nuclear issues, including the security of the Zionist regime (of Israel) and the Al Saud regime,” the MP explained.
His comments came after Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei made it clear on Sunday that any nuclear deal between Iran and world powers should be implementable, stressing that "no deal will be better than a bad one," including a two-stage agreement.
The Leader expressed outright opposition to the idea of a two-stage nuclear deal, which entails consensus on the generalities at first and requires agreement on details at a later time.
“Such a deal is not acceptable, because our experience of the opposite side’s behavior shows that mere agreement on the generalities will become a tool for making successive excuses over details.”
“If there is to be any deal, it must have a single stage and include generalities and details together,” the Leader explained.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) are in talks to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Following an interim nuclear deal signed in Geneva in November 2013, two deadlines for a final, comprehensive deal have been missed, and now a third one is looming on July 1.