TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Hard-line Iranian lawmakers criticised a nuclear deal reached in Geneva last week, with one calling it a “poisoned chalice,” but a majority of deputies who spoke yesterday in a parliamentary hearing on the accord backed an initiative that appears to enjoy both wide public support and the endorsement of top clerics.

Having signed the first-stage accord that curbs Iranian nuclear activity in exchange for limited relief from sanctions, President Hassan Rouhani and his foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif now have the task of trying to convince sceptics that they are not compromising on key issues of national sovereignty.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has publically supported nuclear negotiators and opposition to the deal seems limited, but opinion can shift quickly in Iran and Rouhani’s task will become more delicate as the country moves toward a final accord six months from now.

In the debate broadcast live on state radio, Zarif tried to deflect criticism by noting that some construction will continue at the planned Arak heavy water reactor, whose advancement was effectively frozen by the Geneva accord.

“A chalice of poison has been given to the people but (the government) is trying to show it as a sweet drink through media manipulation,” Hamid Rasaei said.

Most lawmakers, however, supported the deal as providing much-needed economic relief.

Zarif has argued that the deal has caused serious cracks in the sanctions regime imposed over Iranian nuclear activity and prevents the UN Security Council and world powers from imposing new ones.

Others government supporters say the angry reaction from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called it a “historic mistake,” shows it was a triumph.

Iran’s ally Syria meanwhile says its President Bashar Assad telephoned Rouhani yesterday, congratulating him for the nuclear deal.