The fate of the nuclear agreement with Iran is now in this guy's hands.
On Tuesday, the Iran Majlis, the nation's parliament,
approved by a wide margin the nuclear agreement hammered out over the past two years between Tehran, the United States and five other world powers. On Wednesday, the Guardian Council also
approved the agreement, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The final decision, as with most major issues in Iran, is now up to Sayyed Ali Khamenei, the nation's Supreme Leader. His position is not publicly known, but he has several times praised the work of the Iran negotiating team and most close observers say they believe he will say yes to it:
The Guardian Council, made up of six Muslim clerics appointed by the Supreme Leader and six lawyers elected by parliament, is charged with ensuring draft laws do not contradict religious laws or Iran's constitution.
"The majority of the Guardian Council did not find the bill ... to be against religious law and the constitution," the council's spokesman Nejatollah Ebrahimian was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
The 161-59 vote in parliament was a defeat for the hard-liners. But they didn't go down quietly. In a preliminary vote on Sunday, the nuclear agreement was approved by a narrower margin and the debate was raucous,
according to Sam Wilkin and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin at Reuters:
State television froze its live video coverage of Sunday's debate as tempers frayed. Nuclear agency chief Ali Akbar Salehi could be heard shouting "listen, listen!", his voice turning hoarse as he struggled to be heard over dissenting roars.
Iranian agencies, which witnessed the debate, reported that Salehi came under physical assault as he addressed the chamber, while a lawmaker opposed to the motion was admitted to hospital with heart problems linked to stress after losing Sunday's vote.
If Ali Khamenei does give the agreement a thumbs-up, Iran could start implementing the JCPOA on October 18 or 19. That will mean shutting all but 6,060 of the 19,000 centrifuges Iran uses at two sites to enrich uranium. Iran will also rebuild its plutonium reactor at Arak so that it can only make nuclear fuel and reduce its stockpile of low-level enriched uranium (LEU) from 10,000 kilograms to 300 kilograms. This process should be completed by early 2016, at which time international and some U.S. sanctions will be removed. The United States will not remove sanctions relating to human rights abuses.