Iranian Cleric Rejects Two-Stage Nuclear Deal as Deceptive
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Tehran's provisional Friday prayers leader described the idea of a two-phased nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers as a deception, like the one used against Palestinians in the Oslo Accords.
Addressing a large congregation of worshippers here in Tehran on Friday, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany), especially the US, seek to deceive Iran by introducing a two-stage agreement on Tehran’s peaceful nuclear energy program.
“That is what they did to Palestinians in the Oslo Accords,” he said, noting that an agreement on generalities was imposed on Palestinians without working out the specifics.
“Now, 22 years after signing the (Olso) deal, they have not made a single step forward.”
The Oslo Accords, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangement, was an interim agreement signed by the Zionist regime and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in September 1993. The agreement became a cycle of negotiations, suspension, mediation, restart of negotiations and suspension again. The Oslo process finally ended in failure in 2000.
Ayatollah Khatami said world powers seek to play the same trick on Iran regarding the nuclear issue.
“They are saying that let’s agree on generalities first and then move on to details,” the senior cleric said. “Nonetheless, there is no dispute over generalities. There is no need for agreement on generalities. They are already there in the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty). It is the details that are problematic.”
His remarks come as Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei affirmed on Sunday that any nuclear deal between Iran and world powers should be implementable, stressing that "no deal will be better than a bad one," including a two-stage agreement.
Ayatollah Khamenei expressed opposition to the idea of a two-phased nuclear deal, which entails consensus on the generalities at first and requires agreement on details at a later time.
“Such a deal is not acceptable, because our experience of the opposite side’s behavior shows that mere agreement on the generalities will become a tool for making successive excuses over details.”
Iran and the Group 5+1 (also known as the P5+1 or E3+3) are in talks to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
