Russia vowed on Tuesday that it had received a guarantee from Washington that sanctions targeted at it over Ukraine would not affect its cooperation with Tehran, seemingly clearing an obstacle to a revival of the Iranian nuclear deal.
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“We received written guarantees. They were included in the agreements on the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran’s nuclear program,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said along with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. According to him, the future of Russian-Iranian cooperation in the nuclear sphere is secured, “especially with regard to its nominal leader – the Bushehr nuclear power plant.”
Moscow was accused of wanting to disrupt the negotiations
Moscow has been accused of wanting to derail Iran’s nuclear talks after demanding U.S. guarantees on March 5 that its future civil nuclear cooperation with Iran would not be affected by sanctions imposed over Russia’s offensive against Ukraine. “Americans try every day to say that we are blocking an agreement (on Iranian nuclear power), but this is a lie,” Sergei Lavrov said, “the agreement has not been finally approved in several capitals, but in the capital of Russia, Moscow, is not among them.”
According to him, we are now on the “last straight line”, although in recent weeks it seemed several times that the signing of a compromise was inevitable. Important efforts are being made to salvage the 2015 deal struck by Iran on the one hand, and the US, China, France, the UK, Russia and Germany on the other. It was about preventing Iran from getting an atomic bomb, an intention that that country has always denied by granting it the right to civilian nuclear power.
Read alsoMoscow threatened to disrupt the nuclear deal with Iran
He allowed the lifting of international economic sanctions against Tehran in exchange for severe restrictions on its nuclear program. But the US withdrew from it in 2018 under the Donald Trump administration and resumed punitive measures that are choking the Iranian economy. In response, Tehran has largely freed itself from restrictions on its nuclear activities. Once in the White House, Democrat Joe Biden wanted to return to the deal, but indirect negotiations were difficult.