Iran’s missile test may have violated United Nations resolution

Iran has moved a step closer to opening up its economy for business, after its parliament passed a bill approving a nuclear deal with six world powers this morning.

Out of 250 lawmakers present at the Majlis meeting on Tuesday, 161 cast votes in favor, 59 were against and 13 abstained.

The resolution remains in effect until sanctions are lifted under the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

Their renewed criticism comes as Iran’s parliament on Tuesday ratified the nuclear deal with the expectation that it would be formally adopted on Monday.

The fate of the deal now lies in the hands of the 12-member Guardian Council, which can either ratify the law accepting the deal or send it back to Parliament for further evaluation.

The test took place the same day Iran’s parliament voted to abide by the terms of the nuclear deal.

Iran is devising new oil contracts that will be more favourable to foreign investors, focussing on the development of joint fields with neighbouring countries as well as on boosting extraction rates from oil wells, Zangeneh said.

The bill stipulates that inspectors from the Un nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, need approval from a top Iranian security body before visiting military sites, leaving the possibility that disagreements could still arise.

The bill also says Iran should resume its nuclear activities, if worldwide sanctions are not lifted as agreed.

Japan’s crude imports from Iran plunged more than 40 percent from 2011 levels before tough Western sanctions were introduced in 2012 over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

“Iran is a huge market, at least the second biggest in the Middle East with Egypt”, says Thierry Coville, a Researcher at the French research centre for worldwide and strategic studies. But the United States has vowed to veto any transfer of missile technology to Iran.

Obama has consistently refused to link Rezaian’s case, and the cases of three other Americans either jailed or missing in Iran, to the billions of dollars in sanctions relief promised to Iran under the nuclear deal, in spite of congressional efforts to force him to do so.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, went on the attack after he and other government negotiators were accused of having capitulated to the West. One lawmaker had even threatened to kill him because of concessions made in the talks, Salehi said. The motion asked Rouhani’s administration to implement the deal between Iran and the P5+1 group, namely the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany.