Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will discuss the escalation of tensions between Palestine and Israel and a return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran's nuclear program at the upcoming meeting in Reykjavik. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said this in an interview with RBC published Tuesday.
"The meeting will be the first face-to-face contact between the minister and the secretary of state, although before that they communicated by phone. Therefore, the agenda of the talks is comprehensive and includes both bilateral and international issues. As for bilateral relations, they have been on a downward trend lately, which has to be at least stopped," he said. - "Speaking about international topics, these are, of course, the situation around the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the situation in the Middle East in general, the progress of negotiations on the settlement of the Iranian nuclear program and the return of the parties to full-fledged implementation of the JCPOA. Taking into account the transition of the Russian chairmanship in the Arctic Council, the Arctic will also be touched upon".
The Arctic Council ministerial meeting will be held in Reykjavik on May 20-21. Earlier, Blinken and Lavrov had a telephone conversation. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, during the conversation, the foreign ministers of the two countries "agreed to hold a separate meeting on the margins of this session to address key issues of bilateral relations and the international agenda".
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry / TASS
Based on materials from TASS