Iran's top lawmakers and its president have expressed disapproval ofthe United Nations-backed draft nuclear deal with the West, Saturday,offering varying degrees of criticism.
Decision-makers gavethumbs down to the U.N. draft nuclear deal with the West, Saturday,saying that they reject it in its current form. Several key members ofparliament have slammed the deal, while President Mahmoud Ahmedinejadexpressed displeasure with it, but urged the West to "continuecooperating with Iran."
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who heads theIranian parliament's powerful national security and foreign affairscommittee, told Iranian TV that his committee does not approve of theInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)-backed deal, because Tehranhas "no guarantee" that it will "get its uranium back."
Iranianlawmaker Kazem Jalali, who also sits on the national securitycommittee, told Iran's Arabic-language al Alam TV that Tehran has noconfidence in the West because of years of previous dealings:
Hesays that Iran has suspicions about whether the West will respect theterms of the deal. He adds that an eventual deal must be totallytransparent and offer guarantees for all parties involved. He stressesthat the present deal is against the interests of Iran.
Meanwhile,Iranian President Ahmedinejad, speaking to a group of war veterans inthe city of Mashhad, expressed hope that the nuclear talks with theWest would continue.
He says that the West should continue totalk with Iran over the nuclear issue and that the best way to dealwith the Iranian nation is to respect it and deal with it honestly.
Mr.Ahmedinejad also claimed that Israel is "unhappy over the ongoing talksbetween Iran and the West," warning the Jewish state "not to makemischief, along with other bullying powers [to derail] the talks."
Iran'spowerful parliament speaker Ali Larijani attacked the United StatesFriday, accusing it of involvement in a recent bloody attack inSistan-Baluchistan, which killed a number of top Revolutionary Guardcommanders.
Analysts say that Larijani's criticism of the U.S.could be a veiled swipe at Mr. Ahmedinejad for continuing nuclear talkswith the West. Friction between the Iranian president and some of hiserstwhile allies has manifested itself in discord over the recentnuclear negotiations.