TEHRAN — The deputy chairman of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has said that rival presidential candidates in the U.S. are trying to get the endorsement of the anti-Iran and Zionist lobbies by pressuring Tehran.

“Each side in the U.S. election tries to use the issue of opposing Iran to make the Zionist lobby realize that they would confront Iran if they win,” Abbas Moghtadaei told IRNA on Saturday.

But such an approach is not very effective outside the U.S., he argued.

Moghtadaei also pointed to the U.S. attempts to reimpose the UN sanctions on Iran, saying, “The Americans have exited Barjam and they can’t claim to use the dispute resolution mechanism envisaged in the agreement.”

Barjam is the Persian acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the official name for the 2015 nuclear agreement.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always acted in accordance to international law, and the Westerners know that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been in compliance with Barjam at different stages and what the Americans claim today is blatantly out of question,” he added.

In 2018, the U.S. unilaterally pulled out of the deal, officially called the JCPOA, and pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” against Iran to force it to negotiate a new deal.

Russia and China have strongly opposed Washington’s anti-Iran measures, which included targeting top Iranian officials with sanctions and assassinating Iran’s top anti-terror general Qassem Soleimani.

Since the U.S. quit the nuclear deal and imposed sanctions on Iran, the three European countries to the pact have failed to fulfill their commitments to the agreement.

The participant states of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA gathered in Vienna on Tuesday to address Iran’s complaint and also discuss Washington’s latest move to invoke the UN sanctions snapback against Iran.

In a statement, they asserted that the U.S. cannot invoke the UN sanctions snapback against Iran, emphasizing that full implementation of the agreement by all sides remains crucial.

MP Moghtadaei said President Donald Trump’s administration is resorting to illegal moves against Iran as an election shock to catch up to his rival in the elections.

MH/PA