TEHRAN – A number of Iran’s senior lawmakers have commended the Iranian negotiating team in Vienna for their revolutionary approach vis-à-vis the West. 

Mohammad Javad Karimi Ghoddousi, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said the Iranian negotiating team has shown a rarely seen resistance against the West. 

“The negotiating team of the 13th government is negotiating with a revolutionary vision and unparalleled resistance against the Western side, and has been able to defend the country's achievements in the field of nuclear, science and technology,” he told Iran’s state news agency IRNA.

He added, “The strategy and policy of the negotiating team of the 13th government is logical and based on faith and revolutionary support. Based on these beliefs, the nuclear negotiating team has been able to prove its effectiveness in the negotiating environment. The negotiating team always represents the revolutionary and Muslim nation of Iran and must negotiate at the negotiating table with revolutionary and Islamic logic and with the literature of diplomats.”

The lawmaker took a jab at the former Iranian negotiating team, saying they were soft on the West and gave in to the West’s demands. 

Karimi Ghoddousi stressed that the details of the Vienna talks had been monitored in several meetings of the parliamentary committee.

“The negotiating team's explanation of the system's red lines on nuclear technology and the lifting of sanctions at the committee meetings was quite logical and convincing and deserves praise.”

“The negotiating team has even been able to get concessions from the other side. And the Westerners have been forced to back down from some of their irrational demands,” he said.

According to Karimi Ghoddousi, in the new round of talks, the outcome will be in such a way that Iran implements it obligation and the other sides verifies that. 

The attitude and resistance of the negotiating team led to the passivity of the Western side in the negotiations, the lawmaker said, adding that the nuclear negotiating team refused to back down even a bit from the revolutionary positions and the frameworks drawn.

Abbas Moqtadai, another lawmaker who is the deputy head of the parliamentary committee, also praised the Iranian negotiating team, saying that the negotiators’ resistance made the West passive. 

“The resistance of the negotiating team caused the West to be passive in the negotiations, in the war of wills, the Iranian nation dictated its resistance and victory to the other side,” he told IRNA.

he added, “According to the instructions of the Leader, we must create a culture in the country that, despite the efforts of the diplomatic apparatus to advance the goals of the system, the internal affairs of the country should not be tied to negotiations.” 

In his Tuesday remarks, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei referred to the good direction pursued by the country’s diplomats, suggesting “the officials should not wait at all for the nuclear issue to be resolved. Based on the realities of the country, they should plan and take action to solve the problems in the country.”

Ayatollah Khamenei described the officials in charge of the negotiations as being revolutionary, pious, diligent individuals. 

“The minister of foreign affairs and the other officials involved in the negotiations deliver detailed reports to centers within the country. It is alright to criticize and evaluate their performance provided that such opinions are devoid of distrust and pessimism. As I have frequently said before, such opinions should not undermine the individuals involved or cause the people to lose hope,” he pointed out. 

Expressing his satisfaction with the resistance of the negotiating team to the other sides’ avarice, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution stated, “The other side withdrew from the JCPOA and broke its commitments. Now they feel helpless and have reached a dead end. But the Islamic Republic will pass through this stage as it has passed through many stages before this by relying on its people.”

Talks in Vienna over reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have come to a standstill over a number of issues.

Iran has demanded that the Biden administration remove the IRGC from a U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations because it believes that the Trump administration’s move to designate the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization was politically motivated and designed to make it difficult, if not impossible, for the next administration to resuscitate the 2015 nuclear deal.

The U.S. first refused to delist the IRGC and is now, according to press reports, trying to keep a relatively small branch of the IRGC on the list while removing the military group from the list.  

Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar reported Wednesday that Washington made an offer to remove the IRGC from the list and instead keep the IRGC Quds Force on the list, a move that was rejected by Iran. 

Citing a diplomatic source, the Lebanese newspaper said the logic behind turning down the U.S. offer is that Iran is concerned that any U.S. decision to keep part of the IRGC under sanctions will increase the risks associated with doing business with Iran for some foreign firms, thereby reducing Iran’s economic benefits from a revived JCPOA.