Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht Ravanchi stated on Sunday that the Iran nuclear deal sealed last month with world powers is final, and includes a clause stipulating sanctions cannot be returned in the future by presidents after US President Barack Obama.
"There is a paragraph in the agreement which requires the US administration to stop implementation of the sanctions constantly, and this means that there won't be a change once Obama leaves the office," Takht Ravanchi said, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.
Possibly fueling the statement were promises made by Republican presidential candidates last Thursday during a televised live debate, in which several vowed to cancel the Iran nuclear deal upon taking office.
Takht Ravanchi's claim of a clause banning the return of sanctions may possibly refer to a classified side deal. It has been revealed the nuclear deal includes such side deals that are not being shown to Congress, and among other things include stipulations that Iran will inspect its own covert nuclear sites where nuclear detonator testing has occurred.
In his comments, made during a Tehran meeting concerning the nuclear deal, the Iranian official said that the US and other countries are unlikely to cancel the agreement - even as the US Congress is currently in a 60-day review period considering that very option.
Fars paraphrased the deputy foreign minister as calling a cancellation of the deal a "mistake" that "will put Washington against the UN and will isolate the US."
Takht Ravanchi's talk of sanctions relief being irreversible would seem to indicate there is language in the deal backing Iranian Foreign MinisterMohammad Zarif's claim, in which he said last Monday that Obama's much touted sanctions "snap back" cannot happen.
"The structure of the sanctions that the US had built based on the UN Security Council's resolutions was destroyed, and like the 1990s when no other country complied with the US sanctions against Iran, no one will accept the return of the sanctions (in the future)," Zarif said.
There has been a push in Congress to block the deal, with a fight currently ongoing to reach a 2/3 majority that would be able to overturn Obama's presidential veto.
Recently a number of leading Democratshave come out against the deal, while others have openly voiced their support.
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