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The State Department on Tuesday warned that any attempt by Russia to secure sanctions relief as the UN seeks a nuclear deal with Iran would fail.
“The JCPOA will not be a lifeline for the Russian Federation and the sanctions imposed on it because of the war in Ukraine,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
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The National Guard of Ukraine, the Armed Forces, during an exercise simulating a crisis situation in an urban settlement, in the abandoned city of Pripyat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine, February 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Nikolay Timchenko, File)
Price’s comments come after talks on a nuclear deal with Iran stalled again, albeit this time due to Russian demands.
Russia, a member of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) along with the UK, France, Germany, the European Union and China, has disrupted nearly a year of negotiations after calling for its own sanctions to be included in the deals.
The West hit Moscow with devastating sanctions after its deadly invasion of Ukraine three weeks ago, a move that has already had a devastating effect on the Russian economy.
Russian negotiators stalled the nuclear deal last week, demanding sanctions immunity on any future trade with Iran.
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President Vladimir Putin has ordered a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine just eight months after TIME magazine said President Biden was ready to take on the Russian leader. (Sputnik, photo of the Kremlin pool via AP)
On Tuesday, Price said talks were ongoing, but noted that “we haven’t reached our goal yet.”
“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” he added.
It is not clear whether the US agreed to any of Russia’s demands, but a State Department spokesman said the US would not impose sanctions on Russia “for carrying out or participating in nuclear projects that are part of the JCPOA.”
Russia backed the original 2015 JCPOA, which lasted until 2019, when Tehran said it was no longer bound by the agreement following the US withdrawal in 2018.
Price maintained that Russia still supported the agreement and said that a nuclear Iran was not in Moscow’s “interest”.
“We hope that we can complete the mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA in a short time,” the spokesman told reporters. “We should be able to have the negotiators, if the parties come together and agree in good faith and close these outstanding issues.”
US State Department spokesman Ned Price during a press conference.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his own U.S. sanctions on Tuesday and targeted President Biden along with a number of top administration officials.
The White House dismissed the sanctions as trivial and noted that none of the victims have banks in Russia or plan to travel to the country in the near future.
Price was not included in the list of officials sanctioned.