Iran Will Not Sell N-Power to Oil Trade: Majlis Speaker

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that the country will not abandon its peaceful nuclear program in exchange for removal of obstacles and sanctions on the export of its oil.

It’s not acceptable to Tehran to give up its nuclear structure to be able to sell oil, Ghalibaf was quoted by senior MP Ahmad Alirezabeigi as saying in a parliament’s non-public session. Ghalibaf said that many issues and challenges had been solved in the talks in Vienna to remove sanctions against Iran, but some have still remained, including economic guarantees, he added.

Alirezabeigi said that the speaker believed that Iran should economically benefit as a result of the negotiations in Vienna and be able to sell oil unlimitedly and that the Central Bank of Iran should be able to move the funds. Moreover, according to the MP, Ghalibaf has stressed that foreign investment in Iran must be allowed.

Alirezabeigi also said that the Iranian speaker criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for raising new questions after Iran had solved its issues with the nuclear watchdog on safeguards agreements. Ghalibaf said these cases must be closed and there must be essential guarantees for that, Alirezabeigi said.

He has said that undertakings should be implemented step-by-step and the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on maintaining its nuclear structure, Ghalibaf was quoted by the legislator as saying. That Iran will be able to sell oil but will lose its nuclear structure is unacceptable, the MP cited Ghalibaf as saying during the session.

Iran and the West’s undertakings should be balanced, in a rational path and confirmed by the concerned bodies, Ghalibaf said, according to Alirezabeigi. He also affirmed that nothing had been finalized in Vienna, the legislator said.

Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA -- Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China -- started talks in the Austrian capital of Vienna last April on the assumption that the US, under the Joe Biden administration, is willing to repeal the so-called maximum pressure policy.

Tehran says it will not settle for anything less than the removal of all US sanctions in a verifiable manner. It also wants guarantees that Washington would not abandon the agreement again. The eighth round of talks between Tehran and the G4+1 group of countries continues in Vienna on the JCPOA revival and removal of sanctions.

Last Sunday, the Iranian legislators issued a statement, calling on the administration of President Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi to adhere to Iran’s red lines as the talks inched forward in Vienna. They said the US government and its European allies had shown that they were not bound by any agreement over the past few years, so Iran was obliged to learn from the experience and set clear red lines.

The red lines, according to the lawmakers, include guarantees by the United States and the three European signatories of the JCPOA that they would not abandon a potential agreement again and seek recourse to “the snapback mechanism”, which would reinstate the UN Security Council’s sanctions against Iran. They also asserted that all sanctions imposed under “false excuses” had to be removed. - Fars