Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday dismissed a bipartisan vote advancing legislation giving Congress a say in any nuclear deal, warning that ongoing talks with international negotiators could not advance without a guarantee that sanctions against his country will end.
“It is none of our business to heed to the current disputes at the U.S. Senate and their mercenaries, as Iran expects goodwill and respect in return,” Rouhani said in a speech, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
“We explicitly declare that we are not dealing with the U.S. Senate and Congress.”
Rouhani was reacting to Tuesday’s unanimous vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approving legislation that would require President Obama to submit any nuclear deal with Iran to Congress for approval, and tying his ability to waive sanctions to that process.
Obama, who had resisted the idea for months, was forced to back down and say he would sign the legislation when it became clear that most Democrats supported compromise language worked out over the past week in talks with Republicans. Though most U.S. sanctions against Iran are enacted into law, many in Congress feared that Obama would act unilaterally to ease them.
Sanctions are also the principal sticking point in the talks between Iran and the P5+1 countries — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — ahead of a self-imposed July 1 deadline for a final deal. Though a framework for that final deal was announced April 2, a fierce dispute remains over what was agreed on sanctions, with Iran saying they must be removed immediately, and Washington insisting they would only be lifted in response to Iranian actions to implement any deal.
Further complicating matters is the fact that U.S. sanctions are aimed not just at Iran’s illicit nuclear activities but also its global support for terrorism, development of ballistic missiles and the abysmal human-rights record of its ruling Shiite Muslim theocracy. The Obama administration has said only the nuclear-related sanctions will be lifted as part of any deal, but that may be difficult to achieve, and there will be fierce opposition in Congress to any move seen as letting Iran off the hook for supporting terrorism.
Rouhani said the removal of sanctions will be the focus of the talks when they resume next week, and warned that the U.S. government’s desire to keep them in place was not shared by its allies or the U.S. business community.
“You think that the Iranian nation only calls for lifting of economic sanctions but the fact is that your companies are much eager for this as all European, American and Asian companies are waiting for signing of a final deal,” he said.
