TEHRAN — Iranian lawmakers on Sunday passed the double-urgency of a strategic action plan aimed at lifting of the sanctions on Iran and reinforcing the country’s nuclear capabilities.

Of the 246 MPs present in Sunday’s session, 232 voted in favor of the plan, Mehr reported.

It came two days after Iran’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated near Tehran, in what appeared to be a plot by the U.S. and Israeli regimes.

After the plan was approved, lawmakers shouted “Down with America” and “Down with Israel”.

“The plan will in fact strengthen the capabilities of the country’s nuclear industry,” Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said.

“God willing, this plan will be mulled in the next session of the Majlis in order to strengthen the country in terms of the facilities of the nuclear industry as well as to prevent the nonsensical words and terrorist acts of the enemies,” Ghalibaf added.

Iranian lawmakers have angrily and strongly condemned the assassination of Fakhrizadeh.

Chairman of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Mojtaba Zonnour said the Islamic Republic will definitely take revenge from the criminal Zionists.

“The cowardly assassination of martyr Fakhrizadeh will not go unanswered,” Zonnour said in a tweet on Saturday.

Abbas Moghtadaie, who is the deputy chairman of the committee, said, “Now the entire Iran says tough revenge for terror. Tough revenge will be taken. Do not doubt it.” 

Homayoun Sameyah Najafabadi, who represents the Jewish community in Iran, said Iran’s scientific progress cannot be thwarted with the assassination of individuals.

“The enemy thinks that science and knowledge in the Islamic Republic of Iran depend on the individual and they can stop the progress of science and knowledge in Iran by assassinating individuals,” Sameyah Najafabadi told Fars news agency on Saturday.

Meanwhile, MP Nasrollah Pezhmanfar has said the Parliament seeks to mandate the government to end the inspections of Iranian nuclear and military installations by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“A statement condemning the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh will be read out in an open session of the Majlis tomorrow, mandating the government to retaliate quickly against U.S. and Israeli terrorist leaders and to reduce the level of the Agency’s inspections of nuclear and military facilities to zero,” Nasrollah Pezhmanfar said in a tweet on Saturday.

MH/PA