Moscow has asked Washington for written guarantees, at least at the level of Secretary of State, that the sanctions situation will not affect its cooperation with Tehran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday at a press conference following talks with Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev.
He explained that amid new Western sanctions, the Russian side wants a "very clear response" from the United States in the context of bilateral ties between Moscow and Tehran as well as the Iran nuclear deal.
"We need assurances that these sanctions will in no way affect the regime of trade, economic and investment ties, which is laid down in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program. We have asked our American colleagues, because they rule the ball here, to give us guarantees, at least at the level of the Secretary of State, that the current process launched by the United States will in no way infringe on our rights to free and full trade, economic, investment, military-technical cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran," Lavrov said.
The minister recalled that the talks in Vienna on the resumption of the JCPOA on Iran's nuclear program "have gone the lion's share of the way." "Arithmetically, the issues are overwhelmingly agreed upon, although there are still some topics on which Iranian colleagues want more clarity," he continued. - We believe this is a fair demand."
The eighth round of talks on restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to restore the JCPOA to its original form and return the US to this multilateral agreement is concluding in Vienna. The work is taking place through consultations of the Joint Commission of Iran and the Five (Russia, Britain, Germany, China and France), separate consultations with the US without the Islamic Republic's participation, as well as in three working groups. The negotiators are working on a draft final agreement. It is expected that the eighth round could be the last; the negotiators are determined to finish the work in the near future.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS