Russia acts within the framework of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and is committed to the document, there can be no violations. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Support Foundation.
"We act strictly and exclusively within the framework prescribed by the treaty. There are no violations of the treaty and there cannot be any, because we are committed to the treaty. It is an important instrument that works for our security, and we expect the US to feel the same way about this document," he said.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program (JCPOA) can be restored fairly quickly with political will, but the situation with the document became more complicated after the resolution condemning Iran, Ryabkov said.
"The situation became really complicated after a group of states at the last session of the [IAEA] Board of Governors pushed through the resolution condemning Iran, it is a classic example of walking on a political rake. <...> There has been no positional pullback as such, the political context is unfavorable, the positional distance separating the parties is small. We think that if you have the desire, the political will, the agreement can be executed quite quickly," he said.
According to Ryabkov, previously such resolutions led to long pauses in negotiations.
"Experience teaches nothing, in the past such resolutions led to long pauses in negotiations, and now especially when the moment was extremely responsible and an agreement was within reach, such steps were counterproductive. Iran responded with further expansion of [uranium] enrichment, this is a very serious step," the diplomat added.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Federation Council
Based on materials from TASS