Iran Spokesman: Nuclear Policy Set By National Security Council

After parliament Sunday passed a motion setting conditions for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign ministry made clear where decisions were taken.

"The Supreme National Security Council is responsible for managing the talks in Vienna," Saeed Khatibzadeh told his weekly press conference in Tehran Monday. "We have heard the voices of the people's representatives both in private and in public. The government has made every effort, and will continue to do so to act within the framework of their implementational and feasible views.”

The Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) – which has 23 members, including the president, chief justice, various ministers and military commanders − sets security policy, including Iran’s approach to nuclear talks.

Since the 2020 parliamentary election, a majority of parliament oppose, or at least are skeptical about the 2015 deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), and last year passed legislation requiring a scaling up of the nuclear program.

On Sunday, 250 out of the 290 parliamentarians voted for a motion referring to red lines Iran should not breach, including sanctions “imposed on the country under numerous pretexts, including nuclear activity, missile development, and human rights violations.” The motion said that the United States and skeptical the three European JCPOA signatories should lift sanctions imposed under Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), the CAATSA U-turn, and the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA).

Khatibzadeh reiterated that talks in Vienna aiming to revive the 2015 accord would continue within JCPOA structures and that Iran would not enter direct bilateral talks with the US. He pointed out that the previous administration of Donald Trump, like the current administration of President Joe Biden, had sought direct talks. "Today we exchange non-papers with the US indirectly,” the spokesman noted. “They can't expect to see different outcomes when their policies are the same."

In a tweet Monday, Ali Shamkhani concurred. "Negotiation with US is not on the agenda of Iranian team because it will not be the source of any progress," he wrote.

A few weeks ago, Shamkhani and foreign minister Amir-Abdollahian both said that direct talks with the US were possible. This prompted criticism from, among others, editor of Kayhan newspaper Hossein Shariatmadari, a veteran opponent of nuclear talks, the JCPOA, and past bilateral talks with the US over Iraq, Afghanistan and the nuclear program.

Opponents of the JCPOA, like their counterparts in the US, have been increasingly vocal in past weeks as the Vienna talks reportedly made progress.

In a report published by Iran Diplomacy website January 26, conservative commentator Jalal Khoshchehreh said Iran had softened over direct talks with Washington following President Ebrahim Raisi's visit to Moscow. Raisi himself, however, implied on live TV January 25 that such talks are possible only if the US first lifted ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions.