Rouhani hails Iran nuclear deal, chides conservative critics

Baku.23 July.REPORT.AZ/ President Hassan Rouhani defended a nuclear deal criticised by Iran's conservatives, arguing on Thursday that the agreement reflected the nation's will and was "more valuable" than domestic carping about its details, Report informs referring to foreign media. 

The elite Revolutionary Guards, a powerful political, economic and military force, have started sniping at the deal, saying it endangers Iran's security, and have also hit out at a U.N. Security Council resolution passed on Monday endorsing it.

Under the July 14 accord, sanctions will be gradually removed in return for Iran accepting long-term curbs on a nuclear programme that the West has suspected was aimed at creating a nuclear bomb. Iran denies it seeks a nuclear bomb

Rouhani argued that the deal reflected Iranians' wishes. Pinning his political prestige to the agreement, he suggested that blocking the deal would ignore what Iranians had sought when they elected him to office in 2013.

"This is a new page in history," he told a medical conference broadcast live on television. "It didn't happen when we reached the deal in Vienna on July 14, it happened on 4th of August 2013 when the Iranians elected me as their president."