The motion was presented to Iran’s legislative body by parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, Press TV reported on Tuesday.

If the US manages to unilaterally activate the snapback mechanism against the Islamic Republic, the motion will oblige the government to take reciprocal measures such as lifting the restrictions placed on the Iranian nuclear program by the 2015 multilateral accord, named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Chairman of the committee Mojtaba Zonnour said.

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Pompeo claimed that the European signatories to the JCPOA – Britain, France and Germany – agree with the US that the deal is “a bad idea” and said he was “confident” that the “United States will be successful in a week, the snapback will have taken effect.”

In response to Pompeo’s claims, the senior Iranian lawmaker said, “Remarks by officials of the United States have no legal basis and given the mechanism set out in the JCPOA, they cannot take such an action.”

“If the US seeks to carry out a measure to trigger the snapback mechanism or extend an arms embargo against Iran, the Islamic Republic will not remain silent,” Zonnour pointed out.

He noted that if the Parliament passes the motion, the Iranian government would be allowed to enrich as much uranium as needed for peaceful activities, enrich uranium up to a level of 90,000 separative work units (SWUs) for nuclear fuel production and produce, stockpile and sell an unlimited amount of heavy water.

The government would also be allowed to stop the implementation of the Additional Protocol that Iran has voluntarily accepted based on the JCPOA, he said.

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said on Sunday that 1,044 centrifuges are currently operating at Fordow uranium enrichment site as an evidence to the fact that the country has taken in full the fourth step it had promised to reduce its commitments under the JCPOA.

The United States is trying to invoke the snapback mechanism in the multilateral nuclear agreement despite its withdrawal from the accord in May 2018 in violation of UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2231 that endorses the JCPOA.

The United States’ most prominent Western allies have refused to fall into step with the push, which follows Washington’s humiliating defeat in securing an extension of the UN arms embargo against Iran at the UNSC last month.

The president of the Security Council on August 25 dismissed attempts by the US to reinstate all UN sanctions against Iran, citing a lack of consensus in the 15-member body.

As part of measures to contain further spread of the novel coronavirus in the country, all voters and the people involved in the elections were obliged to wear face masks and hand gloves and refrain from any gathering outside the polling places, Press TV reported.

The voting started at 8:00 a.m. local time 0330 GMT) in 3,100 polling places located in 23 counties and 10 constituencies in Alborz, Kermanshah, Isfahan, Golestan, Khuzestan, Ilam, and Zanjan provinces.

Iran’s parliamentary elections were held on February 21, 2020. Over 24 million people took part in the polls with the overall turnout of more than 42 percent.

The elections took 279 lawmakers into the 290-member legislature. The second round to elect the 11 remaining seats was expected to be held in April, but was postponed until September due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the Friday votes, only 10 seats were up for grabs, as one of the candidates in Miyaneh constituency in East Azarbaijan was disqualified.

Now the fate of Miyaneh constituency, along with that of four other seats – whose occupiers have either died of COVID-19 or been disqualified after winning the February votes – will be decided in another round of elections due to be held in 2021 when people will go to ballot boxes for presidential votes.

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said Friday’s runoff parliamentary elections held amid the COVID-19 pandemic will be analyzed so that the country would be prepared to hold the next year’s presidential elections in a glorious way.

“If the coronavirus pandemic lingers on, we will have to consider special conditions, reservations, and requirements for the 2021 presidential elections,” Rahmani Fazli told reporters.

Ali Khezrian made the announcement in a tweet while reacting to Trump’s announcement about triggering the snapback mechanism against Iran, Mehr News Agency (MNA) reported.

US failed at the United Nations Security Council to approve its resolution on extending an expiring arms embargo against Iran upon the JCPOA. Without being reinstated by the UNSC, the sanctions are set to be expired in October.

The UN Security Council on Friday resoundingly defeated the US resolution, leaving it far short of the minimum nine “yes” votes required for adoption. Eleven members abstained, including France, Germany and Britain, while the US and the Dominican Republic were the only yes votes. China and Russia strongly opposed the resolution, but didn’t need to use their vetoes.

“The US administration, one of the violators of the JCPOA, is to trigger the snapback mechanism. While remaining in the JCPOA in case of returning the UNSC resolutions will bring no more benefits for Iran, I put forward the double-urgency bill on ‘Iran’s automatic withdrawal from the JCPOA in case of activation of the snapback mechanism’,” Khezrian posted on his Twitter.

Iran can quit the JCPOA based on Paragraph 36 of the nuclear deal which reads: “If Iran believed that any or all of the E3/EU+3 were not meeting their commitments under this JCPOA, Iran could refer the issue to the Joint Commission for resolution; …If the issue still has not been resolved to the satisfaction of the complaining participant, and if the complaining participant deems the issue to constitute significant non-performance, then that participant could treat the unresolved issue as grounds to cease performing its commitments under this JCPOA in whole or in part and/or notify the UN Security Council that it believes the issue constitutes significant non-performance.“

US President Trump has said the United States will try to trigger a “snapback” of sanctions on Iran at the United Nations next week.

“We’ll be doing a snapback,” Trump told reporters on August 15, the day after the UN Security Council rejected a US-sponsored resolution to extend an arms embargo on Iran. “You’ll be watching it next week.”

However, Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif highlighted that the US claim of its ability to trigger the snapback mechanism of the JCPOA is baseless.

“@AmbJohnBolton has repeated today what he said on May 8, 2018, while National Security Advisor in the Trump administration,” Zarif tweeted early on August 17, referring to an Op-ed by former US National Security Advisor John Bolton who notes that JCPOA supporters are ‘right’ about the fact that “Washington has no standing to invoke its [JCPOA’s] provisions” since it has withdrawn from the deal.

Iran and other signatories of the deal note that Washington cannot legally do so as it has officially ‘ceased participation’ in the deal in May 2018 and has not attended the sessions of the JCPOA Commission afterward.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a gathering in Beijing on Monday that the failure of the US resolution “again showed that unilateralism has no popular support, and hegemonic behavior will not succeed”.

The United States needed to end its unilateral sanctions and adopt a rational attitude, returning to the “correct path” of respecting the Iran nuclear agreement and Security Council decisions, Zhao added.

Speaking in a meeting with Lebanese Ambassador in Tehran Hassan Abbas, the Iranian MP stressed that boosting stability and security in Lebanon will help peace and security of regional and global developments, IRNA reported.

Zonnoui referred to the August 4 tragic explosion in the Lebanese capital of Beirut and extended his condolences to the Lebanese ambassador, as well as the government of Lebanon and families of survivors of the fatal blast which killed 171 citizens and injured more than 6,000 others.

Beirut’s explosion caused by detonation of more than 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at a warehouse in the port city, led to public protests in the Lebanese capital. Angry protestors called for the resignation of the government. After a number of the Lebanese ministers quit their posts, Prime Minister Hassan Diab appeared in a televised program on Monday announcing the resignation of his   government.

More in his talks with the Lebanese ambassador, the Iranian MP stressed the need to strengthen national unity in Lebanon after the disastrous incident.

Noting that providing Lebanon with humanitarian assistance is a must in the present situation, the Iranian MP expressed hope that certain countries avoid taking advantage of the existing situation in form of extending humanitarian aid to Lebanon.

Lebanon’s ambassador to Iran Hassan Abbas, for his part, stated that Iran has always been a friend and brother to the Lebanese nation and has played an important role in the region.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he thanked Iran for dispatching medical and health aid to Lebanon.

Following the deadly explosion in the Lebanese capital, Iran rushed to provide humanitarian aid to the Arab country.

Head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) stated on Sunday that the body has dispatched 95 tons of aid cargo to Lebanon in the aftermath of the deadly blast which defaced the coastline of Beirut — destroying hundreds of buildings.