Iran makes "political decision" on nuke deal, awaits U.S. decision: senior lawmaker

TEHRAN, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian lawmaker said on Wednesday that Iran has made its "political decision" on a possible agreement on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, urging the United States to make its own one, the Student News Network (SNN) reported.

"The negotiations are over and the agreement process is underway. Iran's political decision has been made and America must make its own political decision," Abbas Moqtadaee, vice chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, was quoted by SNN as saying.

Moqtadaee made the remarks after the parliament's closed-door meeting with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani, the Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani and officials from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

The United States should decide whether it intends to respect Iranians' "full interests" or to "break their vows and contract as in the past," Moqtadaee noted.

"Currently, the ball is in the court of the United States and the West, and they should make the right decision to respond to Iran regarding the agreement," Vali Esmaili, vice chairman of the Social Commission of the parliament, told the official IRNA news agency on Wednesday.

Esmaili said the parliament has given complete authority to the Iranian negotiating team in the nuclear talks.

On Monday, Iran announced that it had presented its written response to the EU's draft of a potential agreement, noting that if the U.S. reaction features realism and flexibility, the nuclear agreement will be achieved.

The latest round of the nuclear talks was held in Austria's capital Vienna in early August after a five-month hiatus. On Aug. 8, the EU put forward a "final text" of the draft decision on reviving the nuclear deal.

Iran signed the nuclear deal with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact.

The talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal began in April 2021 in Vienna but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington.