Hindustan Times (Jalandhar)

Iran faces excessive demands in N-deal: Cleric

- Reuters letters@hindustant­imes.com

DUBAI/BEIRUT: A senior cleric challenged Iran’s historic nuclear deal with world powers on Friday, echoing a cautious early assessment of the accord by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an arch-conservati­ve who has the last word on matters of state.

Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani did not dismiss the accord in his remarks at Friday prayers in Tehran, but his language was sufficient­ly tough — some terms of the deal were an “insult” and “excessive”, he said — to indicate significan­t unease about the accord within Iran’s clerical establishm­ent.

His remarks will be seen by Iranians as reflecting Khamenei’s views and contrast with the praise given to the accord by President Hassan Rouhani and foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who plan to use the deal as the basis for a charm offensive among Iran’s wary Arab neighbours.

Kermani said Iran would accept a deal only if sanctions were lifted immediatel­y, frozen revenues were returned and Tehran’s revolution­ary ideals, including its fight with “global arrogance” — a term for the West and Israel — were preserved.

“They have some excessive demands,” he said, objecting to restrictio­ns placed on the number of centrifuge­s Iran can operate, on its nuclear research and developmen­t and on its handling of enriched uranium.

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