With the newly elected Iranian parliamentarians set to take their seats by the end of May, more than 100 members of the current conservative-led parliament took one last shot at President Hassan Rouhani’s comprehensive nuclear agreement with the six world powers. In a written warning to the president, the members of parliament said the United States had not fulfilled its promises and asked Rouhani to set a deadline for reconsidering the voluntary steps Iran took in reducing its nuclear program.
The statement by the members of parliament said that while Iran has fulfilled all of its commitments in the nuclear agreement, it accused the United States of “bad promises, sabotage and obstruction” in fulfilling their end of the agreement, specifically in the case of “removing sanctions, banking transactions and blocking money.” While the US has lifted the nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, a number of European and Asian banks have been advised against doing business with Iranian banks due to the remaining US sanctions. US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to meet with British banks this week to resolve misunderstandings over banking issues. The reference to “blocking money” in the statement refers to a US court’s $2 billion judgment against Iran for the victims of a terrorist bombing in Beirut.
