Iranian President Hassan Rouhani downplayed recent efforts by hardliners in the nation’s parliament to threaten ongoing diplomacy with the P5+1, saying there was no reason to fear the “fuss” they were kicking up and saying the opponents amounts to only a “small percentage” of the nation.
As with the US Senate, opponents to the nuclear deal in the Iranian parliament have pushed resolutions aimed at hamstringing negotiators or sabotaging the process, but have so far failed to get much momentum.
The most recent effort in Iran saw MPs trying to “supervise” the ongoing talks with a committee of hardliners, though the effort failed, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei retains control over the process.
Khamenei’s support for the talks has limited the options of parliamentarians to really sabotage the negotiations, though many seem undeterred. Their chance of pulling off a talk-killing resolution seems much less likely than their American counterparts, however, who are close to voting on a resolution that would deliberately violate the interim deal to kill the talks.