Parliament Has Final Say on Adopting Additional Protocol: Iranian MP
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior Iranian lawmaker said adopting the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) needs to be ratified by the parliament, even if the administration plans to implement it voluntarily or temporarily.
In an interview with Al-Alam Arabic language news network on Sunday, Chairman of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi reiterated the parliament's authority to decide on adoption of the Additional Protocol.
He also slammed as unacceptable the West's call for interviews with the Iranian nuclear scientists, echoing earlier statements by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, who on May 20 described such a request as an instance of "interrogation".
"I would not let foreigners come (here) and talk to the Iranian nation's dear scientists..., who have expanded this wide knowledge to this stage," the Leader had noted.
Elsewhere in the interview, Boroujerdi denied rumors citing top negotiator Abbas Araqchi as saying in a parliamentary session that Iran has agreed to inspection of its military sites.
"Mr. Araqchi just explicated the main theme of the issue and did not say that Iran has agreed on inspection of (its) military bases," the lawmaker noted.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) are in talks to hammer out a lasting accord that would end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran's peaceful nuclear program.
On April 2, the two sides reached a framework nuclear agreement in Lausanne, Switzerland, with both sides committed to push for a final deal until the end of June.
Diplomats from the two sides are now drafting the text of the final accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
