Iran will only sign a final nuclear deal if economic sanctions against the nation are removed on the first day of its implementation, Iran’s President said Thursday.
Six world powers and Iran reached a preliminary deal last week that aims to limit the latter’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.
The United States, however, has stressed that if a final deal is reached with Iran, the removal of any sanctions will come in phases.
But work on the deal isn’t finished.
Negotiators from the United States, Iran, China, Germany, France, Britain and Russia have until June 30 to come up with a final deal.
On the first day
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his government would not surrender to bullying, sanctions and threats, according to Press TV.
“We will not sign any deal unless on the very first day of its implementation all economic sanctions against Iran are lifted all at once,” he said at a ceremony to mark National Nuclear Technology Day in Tehran.
U.S. President Barack Obama faces an uphill battle selling the deal to a skeptical Congress, which has threatened to impose new sanctions on Iran.
Not a chance
The No. 3 House Republican leader said a bill to ease any sanctions does not stand a chance in the House or Senate.
“The sanctions that were put in place — again, very bipartisan sanctions passed by Congress years ago that were effective — the only way to get rid of them completely would be for Congress to vote to ease those sanctions,” Louisiana GOP Rep. Steve Scalise said in a radio interview with WWL in New Orleans on Wednesday.
“We haven’t had that vote. I don’t see that passing out of the House. I don’t even think it would pass out of the Senate right now.”
Diplomats announced last week that they’d come up with the framework for an agreement after a marathon stretch of late-night negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The framework includes the easing of U.S. and U.N. sanctions on Iran if it takes certain steps to curb its nuclear program.
The game plan
Iran would reduce its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98% and significantly scale back its number of installed centrifuges, according to the plan. In exchange, the United States and the European Union would lift sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.
“It is a good deal, a deal that meets our core objectives,” Obama said at the time. “This framework would cut off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon.”
It would include strict verification measures to make sure Iran complies, he said.
The United States and Iran have a long history of strained relations, which made the negotiations even more significant.
Just two years ago, the two countries hadn’t talked with each other officially in nearly four decades.