Iran’s president has suggested the Islamic Republic couldhold a referendum over the country’s nuclear program amid the unraveling dealwith world powers and heightened tensions with the United States, Iranian mediareported Sunday.
According to the official IRNA news agency, President HassanRouhani, who was last week publicly chastised by the country’s supreme leader,made the suggestion in a meeting with editors of major Iranian news outlets onSaturday evening.
Rouhani said he had previously suggested a referendum toSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2004, when he was a senior nuclearnegotiator for Iran.
At the time, Khamenei approved of the idea and though therewas no referendum, such a vote “can be a solution at any time,”Rouhani was quoted as saying.
A referendum could provide political cover for the Iraniangovernment if it chooses to increase its enrichment of uranium, prohibitedunder the 2015 deal with world powers.
Last year, President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. Out of thedeal that capped Iran’s uranium enrichment activities in return to liftingsanctions. Trump has argued that the deal failed to sufficiently curb Iran’sability to develop nuclear weapons or halt its support for militias throughoutthe Middle East that the U.S. Says destabilize the region, as well as addressthe issue of Tehran’s missiles, which can reach both U.S. Regional bases andIsrael.
In recent weeks, tensions between Washington and Tehran haveescalated over America deploying an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to theregion over a still-unexplained threat it perceives from Tehran. The U.S. Alsoplans to send 900 additional troops to the 600 already in the Middle East andextending their stay amid the tensions.
Rouhani’s remarks could also be seen as a defense of hisstance following the rare public chastising by the supreme leader.
Khamenei last week named Rouhani and Foreign MinisterMohammad Javad Zarif — relative moderates within Iran’s Shiite theocracy whohad struck the nuclear deal — as failing to implement his orders over theaccord, saying it had “numerous ambiguities and structuralweaknesses” that could damage Iran.
Earlier last week, Iran said it quadrupled itsuranium-enrichment production capacity though Iranian officials made a point tostress that the uranium would be enriched only to the 3.67% limit set under thedeal, making it usable for a power plant but far below what’s needed for anatomic weapon.
Zarif, the foreign minister, was in the Iraq capital onSunday for talks with officials. On Saturday, Mohamad Halbousi, the parliamentspeaker in Iraq, a key Iranian ally, said Baghdad is ready to mediate betweenthe United States and Iran if it is asked to do so.