Washington is doing everything to prevent a dialogue between Iran, the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this on Thursday at a press conference following talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
"We are interested in the fact that Iran and the Arab countries of the [Persian] Gulf will establish normal dialogue between themselves, reach agreements on confidence-building, transparency in military affairs and in general develop cooperation. <...> Unfortunately, our American colleagues have done so far, at least the current administration, everything to prevent this dialogue from taking place," he said.
Lavrov said Russia's proposal to develop a security concept for the Persian Gulf is among other things aimed at developing a dialogue between Iran and Arab countries. "The main thing is that this process should not be hindered and no actions aimed at undermining even the very efforts to create conditions for such a dialogue," he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister to visit Moscow
Sergey Lavrov also said that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will visit Moscow in January.
"In January, by the way, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is expected to visit [Moscow]," he said.
Touching on the topic of a possible conference to discuss the collective security of the Persian Gulf, Lavrov stressed that Moscow understands that "Saudi Arabia is concerned <...> about specific Iranian actions in certain countries of the region." "We said today that the conference that we proposed to hold to discuss the concept of collective security in the Gulf may well include all these issues on its agenda, as well as the concerns of other participants, including Iran," he added.
Earlier, the Iranian Foreign Minister's visit to Moscow was expected to take place in November. However, it was postponed. The Iranian Foreign Ministry then specified that the postponement of Zarif's visit to Russia was connected with the Iranian government's extraordinary program for holding budget meetings, at which the presence of all ministers is obligatory.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Christian Ohde / Imago / TASS
Based on materials from TASS