TEHRAN, Feb. 22 (MNA) – The Iranian President’s Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi says all Iranian officials agree that the Parliamentary law on stopping the Additional Protocol should be implemented.

“We told the IAEA that all officials in Iran unanimously agree that this law should be implemented,” Vaezi said on Monday in reaction to Sunday’s joint statement by Iran and IAEA.

Meanwhile, he continued, Iran will remain committed to cooperation with the Agency with regards to Safeguards as Tehran has never sought to develop a nuclear weapon.

“We had a successful negotiation and reached a formula so that both the Parliament’s law will be implemented and the Agency’s inspections based on safeguards and also Iran-IAEA cooperation will continue,” Vaezi said. 

According to the joint statement, Iran will stop its voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and will deny IAEA inspectors access to its nuclear facilities beyond the Safeguards Agreement as of February 23, 2021, for three months. However, it added, “Iran continues to implement fully and without limitation its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA as before.”

On Monday, the Iranian Parliament hold a closed session to address the statement. After the session, some lawmakers slammed the temporary agreement as a violation of Iranian law.

“The spirit of the law passed by the Parliament is that all IAEA inspection, except for NPR and Safeguards, would stop but yesterday’s statement is a clear violation of the law,” said Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mojtaba Zonnour. “Leader of the Islamic Revolution announced that no condition or negotiation will be accepted as long as Europe and America nullify sanction. Leader’s remarks are clear but recent agreement of the administration and the IAEA is a form of accepting conditions,” he added.

Lawmakers also agreed to report the administration’s violation to the Judiciary Branch. Voting 221 in favor, MPs noted that Sunday’s temporary agreement is a violation of the law and needs to be addressed by the Judiciary.

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