TEHRAN, Dec 2 (NNN-IRNA) – A parliament bill received preliminary approval in Iran, to restrict international inspections of Iran’s nuclear programme, increase uranium enrichment, and halt the implementation of the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), if embargoes on the country are not lifted.
“With the general approval of this bill, parliament sent a message to the enemies that, the one-sided game is over,” Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said after the vote, as quoted by Mehr news agency.
Altogether 251 lawmakers in the 290-seat chamber gave the “Strategic Action to Lift Embargoes” a positive vote, and many stood up to chant slogans against the U.S. and Israel, after the result was announced.
Following the general approval, Iran’s parliament must examine each article of the bill separately, discuss amendments proposed, then send it to the Guardian Council for final ratification as law.
If the bill is ratified, all foreign access and monitoring of Iranian nuclear activities, beyond the NPT’s Additional Protocol, should stop within two months of the bill’s enactment, “in line with Articles 36 and 37” of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 international nuclear agreement.
European partners to the JCPOA would be given three months to restore both banking connections with Iran, and oil purchases from Iran, to “normal and satisfactory conditions.”
Otherwise, the bill obliges the Iranian government to stop implementing the Additional Protocol.
Also, two months after the ratification, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) would be obliged to produce at least 120 kg of 20-percent enriched uranium annually, and store it inside the country.
The AEOI would likewise have to increase its enrichment machinery to at least 1,000 IR-2m centrifuges, in order to annually supply at least 500 kg of uranium, enriched to different degrees, adequate to civil purposes.– NNN-IRNA
