Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khomeini has approved the government’s nuclear deal with world powers but with conditions
He said that Tehran should not give up core elements of its atomic programme until allegations of past military dimensions had been settled.
Khomeini’s nod is said to be the last procedural hurdle to carrying out a deal that ended a decade-long stand-off.
In a letter to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whose pragmatist approach opened the door to nuclear diplomacy with the West, Khomeini ordered the 14 July agreement to be implemented, subject to certain security conditions the Iranian Parliament stipulated in a law passed last week.
Under the Vienna agreement, Iran is to curb sensitive parts of its nuclear programme to help ensure it cannot be diverted into developing bombs, in exchange for a removal of sanctions that have isolated the country and hobbled its economy.
But he has ruled out any detente with the West beyond the nuclear deal, and he said Iran would stop implementing it if the six powers - the USA, UK, France, Germany China and Russia - imposed any new sanctions.
Iran has agreed with the powers to fill the Arak reactor’s core with concrete so that it could not yield plutonium, which along with highly enriched uranium constitutes the standard fuel for nuclear bombs. The Middle East nation is also required to export more than 90 per cent of its refined uranium stocks, keeping just 300 kg of the material enriched to 3.67 per cent fissile purity - suitable for running civilian nuclear power plants - for 15 years.
