Earlier on June 30, Iran's Parliament speaker Ali Larijani who attended the Islamic Inter-Parliamentary summit held in Syria had announced: "The Parliament is studying a bill in response to the new rounds of sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council and the countries which voted against the Islamic Republic."
The bill was first introduced on June 16 to the Parliament when 180 lawmakers out of 197 present voted to study the plan.
On June 9, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1929 imposing a fourth round of sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program the West says is aimed at developing the means to access atomic weapons. However, stressing that its nuclear program is meant for peaceful purposes, Tehran is still defiant to the pressures and is following to enrich uranium to 20 percent.
The Islamic Republic has called the sanctions illegal. The new punitive acts among other things target Iran's banking and shipping sectors as well as military equipment imports. Resolution 1929 sets up a cargo inspection system for Iranian vessels bounded for the country or coming back from there. The new act is similar to one currently practiced for North Korea.
Kazem Jalali, the spokesman of the Parliament's national security and foreign policy commission told Khabar Online: "What has been asserted in a priority of the bill is the issue that if a country begins to inspect the Islamic Republic ships, Iranian government will be obliged to hit back and inspect the ships belonging to that country as retaliation. Furthermore, the judiciary branch has been called to fully assist the government in executing the plan."
"A clause in the bill also requests the government to follow the nuclear program resolutely and if a new budget is needed, the Majlis will be entirely ready to pass a bill and finance the project," he said.
The lawmaker did not indicate that the reciprocal act would possibly be limited to inspect foreign vessels or would also include downgrading ties with those countries which support the sanctions: "As the lawmakers has ratified a priority of the bill, based on the mechanism of the Majlis proceedings, the issue will be raised in several discussions and possibly other retaliatory measures would be taken as well as ship inspection."
The spokesman of the parliament's national security commission implicated that the details of the issue will be made known in the near future, but the deputy head of the commission Esmaeil Kowsari said that the bill seemingly would not be limited to cargo inspection.
Kowsari asserted that the reciprocal act would even include Russia and China: "All countries which endorsed the resolution and acted to enforce new sanctions against the Islamic Republic will be subjected to our retaliatory moves."
Unlike Jalali who did not mention the exact time for finalizing the plan, he said: "The bill is to be considered on Sunday before the open session of the Majlis and the result will be made public later."
As the Iranian lawmakers make effort to pass a bill safeguarding the nuclear achievements of the country as soon as possible, it seems that the officials of Iran's Foreign Ministry are working on their own plans as well.
Earlier Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had said the Islamic Republic will take actions to retaliate the harassing move of those members of the United Nations Security Council which passed resolution 1929.
The 57 years old minister did not elaborate on the way of taking such actions but maintained: "Currently the easiest work in the world is trading. We will give an appropriate response to those who are to impose new rounds of sanctions against us. We are living in a sensitive region. We have always stressed that the security of Persian Gulf should be supported by all the countries in the region and no state can separate itself from the others on the pretext of security issues,"
Iran is not to confront directly with those countries which put Iranian ships under inspection, but is to adopt different methods for retaliation. Some analysts note that Mottaki has referred by implication to the reciprocal inspection of the ships in the Strait of Hormuz, those belonging to the countries which backed the resolution.
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