TEHRAN, Nov 16: Iran's powerful hardliners on Tuesday lined up to condemn an agreement by the clerical leadership to suspend sensitive nuclear activities in line with international demands and as part of a deal with Britain, France and Germany.
At a noisy session in the parliament, one deputy likened the deal to the 1993 Oslo autonomy accords between Israel and the Palestinians, considered by the Islamic republic as an act of "treason".
"We agreed to make 13 precise commitments while the Europeans only made four vague ones," said conservative MP Ahmad Tavakoli, referring to the text of a deal agreed upon late Sunday between Iranian and European diplomats.
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirmed on Monday that Iran has pledged to suspend all uranium enrichment-related activities as of Nov 22.
The suspension would come in time for an IAEA meeting in Vienna on Nov 25 that will decide whether to take Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
The deal brokered by the so-called EU-3 offered Iran trade, security and technological incentives in return for its cooperation.
"The Europeans said they would help us join the WTO, but it is the Americans who oppose our joining and them who decide," Tavakoli said, adding that joining the World Trade Organisation would in any case only bring "misery and poverty" to Iran.
"The concessions that we accepted compared to the commitments the Europeans made is like us offering a rare pearl in return for a lollipop," complained Ali Larijani, another top official who represents supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the Supreme National Security Council.
"This accord goes against our national interests," added Rafaat Bayat, another hardline deputy. "I say to the United States and the Europeans and in particular France who insists a lot on the suspension of enrichment, that our parliament will not accept anything that goes against our national interests," she said.
She complained the accord with the EU-3 also calls on the Iranian parliament, or Majlis, to ratify the additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that allows tougher inspections.
"The Europeans should not give us orders," she said, as even relatively moderate deputies railed against the accord - which was approved at the very top of the clerical regime.
MP Ghodratollah Alikhani even went as far as to compare Sunday's meeting between top nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani and the three European ambassadors to scenes of the ousted Shah of Iran cosying up to foreigners.-AFP
