Tell People The Nuclear Deal Is Dead, Iranian Lawmaker Says

Mahmoud Ahmadi-Bighash, a member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy committee
Mahmoud Ahmadi-Bighash, a member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy committee

An Iranian lawmaker has called on the authorities to tell the people that the Vienna talks to restore the 2015 nuclear deal will yield no results. 

Mahmoud Ahmadi-Bighash, who is a member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy committee, said on Saturday that there is no news about the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) because it has reached a dead-end. 

He said the fate of the JCPOA is entangled with the lives of people and they are subconsciously invested in the talks, therefore “if we tell people the truth about the JCPOA... they will know what to do”.

“‌Our differences with the United States and the Europeans are fundamental”, he noted, saying that “the Americans believe that we should give up our principles while we want them to give up their arrogant and bullying behavior”.

Ahmadi-Bighash added, “We cannot give up our revolutionary principles because they are inherent in our religious obligations”, claiming that the issue of the Revolutionary Guard being listed by the as a terrorist organization by the US is just an excuse. 

He praised relations with Russia and China and emphasized the Islamic Republic's motto of "self-reliance", but except Israel, the lawmaker said, Iran should have relations with all counties.

Negotiations, which started in Vienna in April 2021 to revive the Obama-era nuclear deal, JCPOA, have been on a protracted pause since March 11, as the Islamic Republic demanded removing its Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from a US list of terrorist organizations.