The agreement, a major initiative for both US President Barack Obama and Iran's pragmatic President Hassan Rouhani, faces opposition from hardliners in both countries.
Iran's hardline RevolutionaryGuards denounced a UN Security Council resolution endorsinglast week's nuclear deal, saying it crossed "red lines" set bySupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolutionon Monday endorsing the deal, which relieves Iran of sanctionsand ensures it retains a nuclear fuel cycle, but keeps in placean arms embargo and a ban on ballistic missile technology forseveral more years.
The agreement, a major initiative for both US President Barack Obama and Iran's pragmatic President Hassan Rouhani, faces opposition from hardliners in both countries. In additionto the United States, it was signed by the four other UN Security Council veto-wielding permanent members, as well asGermany.
In the United States, Obama has said he would veto an attempt to scupper the deal by the Republican-led US Congress. In Iran, Khamenei, who wields final authority above that ofthe elected leader Rouhani, has so far withheld a clear verdict.
By asserting that the deal goes beyond limits which Khameneihimself set, hardliners may be trying to push him to reject it. The deal is still under review and must be endorsed by Iran'sNational Security Council and later by Khamenei.
"Some parts of the (resolution) draft have clearly crossedthe Islamic republic's red lines, especially in Iran's military capabilities," top Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammed Ali Jafari was quoted as saying shortly before the resolution waspassed in New York.
"We will never accept it," he was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim News Agency. Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of Kayhan, anewspaper closely associated with Khamenei, wrote that accepting the new resolution would be tantamount to accepting previousSecurity Council resolutions, which Iran considers illegal.
"Even by simply looking at the deal you can see some vitalred lines of the Islamic Republic have not been preserved," hewrote. Ahmad Bakhshayesh, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee in parliament, said the nuclearnegotiations had veered too far into the military sphere. "The negotiating team was not supposed to negotiate on Iran's ballistic missile technology," he was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
"UNPRECEDENTED ACHIEVEMENT"
Rouhani has defended the deal staunchly in Iran. His seniornuclear negotiator, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, dismissed critics'concerns and said the UN Security Council resolution was an"unprecedented achievement in Iran's history".
"....The new UNSC resolution would only ban missilesdesigned to carry a nuclear warhead, (and) Iran does not have anuclear missile programme," Araghchi told state broadcaster IRIBin a live interview.
Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued minutesafter the UN Security Council passed its resolution that itstill rejects any sanctions as "baseless, unjust and illegal".
"So no part of (the nuclear deal) should be interpreteddirectly or indirectly as Iran's surrender to or acceptance ofthe sanctions and restrictions imposed by the UNSC, the US,the EU or member countries."
While avoiding a clearcut verdict in public, Khamenei saidin a sermon at prayers on Saturday that he would not let thedeal be "abused" or endanger "Iran's security and defencecapabilities". He asked the nation to stay united while the agreement isbeing examined by officials to ensure national interests werepreserved.
Iranian supporters of the deal say Khamenei was briefed onthe negotiations and it could not have gone through without hisgreen light. But opponents say the Supreme Leader's decision tosubject the text to scrutiny means he has not yet agreed to it.
"It's impossible that our Supreme Leader agrees with a dealthat has crossed the red lines. The leader would have not askedthe text of the deal to be examined carefully if he had alreadyendorsed it," Shariatmadari said.
The head of Iran's nuclear organization Ali Akbar Salehi andIranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the two mainnegotiators in Vienna, will attend a closed-door session of parliament on Tuesday to brief lawmakers on the deal.
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