Iran’s Guardian Council to debate motion passed by Majlis in response to US bans

Rasa - Iran’s Guardian Council will discuss a motion approved by Iranian lawmakers in response to the terrorist and adventurous US measures in the region, the body’s spokesman says.

News ID: 432036

Date: 29 August 2017 - 23:40

RNA - Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei said on Tuesday that the Guardian Council plans to debate the motion during its session on Wednesday.

On August 13, Iranian legislators overwhelmingly approved the motion in response to US sanctions, voting to boost spending on Tehran's missile program and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' defense mechanism.

The plan would require Iran's government and Armed Forces to draw up a strategy to counter US violations of human rights around the world, and to support Iranian bodies and individuals affected by US sanctions.

The motion would also allocate over $260 million each to Iran's ballistic missile program and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ Quds Force, which has sent military advisers to Iraq and Syria to fight terrorists.

The measure came after US President Donald Trump signed into law a bill passed by the Congress to impose new sanctions on Iran over its missile program in early August.

Iran argues that Washington's new sanctions violate a 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), both "in letter and spirit."

Tehran says its missile program does not breach the United Nations Resolution 2231 which endorsed the nuclear deal.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia - plus Germany signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the agreement, limits were put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related bans against the Islamic Republic.

The UN Security Council later unanimously endorsed a resolution that effectively turned the JCPOA into international law.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on August 15 warned that Tehran can go back to conditions before the conclusion of the JCPOA within hours if the US continues to violate the terms of the agreement and impose new sanctions against the country.

“The new US administration officials should know that the failed experience of threats and sanctions forced their predecessors to come to the negotiating table. If they prefer to return to those times, Iran will definitely return to a situation much more advanced than the start of the [nuclear] negotiations, not within months and weeks, but in a matter of hours and days,” Rouhani said in a televised speech at the parliament’s open session.

He underlined Iran’s commitment to the nuclear deal and added that Tehran would follow up and respond to any breach of the deal by other parties.

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