In Tehran, there is intense debate over whether parliament or the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) should review the nuclear deal with six world powers. The government and some of its supporters argue that the latter falls under the purview of the SNSC. Meanwhile, Principlists believe that parliament should be given priority.

In general, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes policies and decisions regarding major issues. However, there appear to be differences about Khamenei’s description of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name of the nuclear deal. He has referred to the document as a “text” and not an “agreement.” On at least two occasions, he has stressed that the JCPOA should be approved “through a legal path.” He said this first in response to a letter from President Hassan Rouhani regarding the negotiations, and then in his recent speech at the Eid al-Fitr prayers.

In Khamenei’s telling, there is a legal path “to approve this text” that has been foreseen, and should, and will, be taken. However, he has not clarified what this path is.

Reza Alijani, a Paris-based political activist, told Al-Monitor that it’s not odd that Khamenei has assumed such a position, considering that he has continuously adopted an equivocal approach toward the negotiations. However, Alijani believes that Iran’s leader has been a “supporter of the talks in practice” and that his equivocal stance is due to his positioning, adding that Khamenei’s words “leave the door open for sidelining parliament.” In this vein, Alijani predicts that the SNSC will ultimately do the latter.