Iran MP urges backup plans by administration against potential US breach of deal

An  Iranian lawmaker says the administration of President Hassan Rouhani should prepare contingency plans to proportionately respond to a potential breach by the United States of a multi-lateral nuclear deal with Iran.

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill for a 10-year re-authorization of the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA), which was initially adopted in 1996 on the unfounded ground that Iran was pursuing a non-civilian nuclear program. A day later, it voted to bar the sale of American commercial Boeing airplanes to the Islamic Republic. The measures have to be approved by the Senate and then the US president to turn into law.

Outgoing President Barack Obama has threatened he would veto the legislation barring the sale of commercial airplanes to Iran if it ends up on his desk. He has been silent on the ISA. Even if they are passed by the Senate, there is a potential that neither of the bills will be in time for him to consider, though, as a change of administration will occur in the US on January 20, 2017.

Incoming President Donald Trump has exhibited anti-Iran rhetoric during his campaign. He has said he would “tear up” the nuclear deal with Iran. He has not commented on Iran-related issues, however, since winning the US presidential election on November 8.

Iranian MP Mojtaba Zon-Nour, who heads the Parliament (Majlis)’s Nuclear Committee of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said in case the US president fails to veto the two anti-Iran bills, the Rouhani administration will have to be able to respond in kind.

Zon-Nour said the measures at the Congress were in clear contravention of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US, in 2015.

In case they are not vetoed, he said, “the [Iranian] administration should be ready to take countermeasures and to deliver a stiff response to them by increasing the number of centrifuges and increasing uranium enrichment as well as other steps,” Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.

The JCPOA removed all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran in exchanges for limits to the country’s nuclear program, including caps on enriched uranium stockpiles, and enhanced access to international monitors to nuclear facilities.

Zon-Nour also said that, as enshrined in the JCPOA, countries have a right to sell aircraft to Iran and the country is authorized to engage in related transactions.

The Iranian Parliament has passed a law obliging the government to respond to potential contraventions of the nuclear agreement, he said.

Iran has already said it is prepared for any “possible eventuality.”

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