Russian Official Says Iranian Parliament Bill ‘Logical’ Response to US
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A Russian official described a bill passed by Iran’s parliament on Sunday in response to recent US sanctions as logical.
“This is quite logical. This is what happens when one country (the US) believes it may do anything, and others - nothing,” Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
“The world may be stable only on the basis of equal rights of the countries,” he continued, according to the Tass news agency.
In a session this morning, 240 Iranian lawmakers voted for the bill to confront “America's terrorist and adventurous actions” in the region.
The bill allows for a boost in spending on Tehran’s missile program and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ defense mechanism.
It would require Iran’s government and armed forces to draw up a strategy to counter US violations of human rights around the world, and to support Iranian bodies and individuals affected by US sanctions.
It would also allocate over $260 million each to Iran’s ballistic missile program and the Quds Force - the external arm of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), which has sent military advisers to Iraq and Syria to fight terrorists.
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who is the head of an Iranian commission tasked with monitoring the agreement’s implementation, told MPs that the government backed the bill which he described as “very strong.”
He said Iran has many devices at its disposal apart from the nuclear agreement to confront the United States.
The bill came after the US House of Representatives and then the Senate passed a sweeping package of bills on sanctions against Iran, Russia, and North Korea.
The US legislation would impose mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them.
