Russia expects that the negotiations on the US return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will be successfully completed by the sixth anniversary of the Iranian nuclear deal - July 14, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.
"We believe that everything necessary for the restoration of the JCPOA is laid down in this very document, which was obtained, in general, at such a great cost. Russia, like all the other parties, is striving for a speedy conclusion of the negotiation process, preferably no later than the sixth anniversary of the JCPOA. But in general, this is rather such a desirable psychological marker, the real value is a qualitative result, of course, which we very much hope will be achieved," Zakharova stressed.
According to her, there has been significant progress in the negotiations on the restoration of the JCPOA in Vienna. "Over these three months, the delegations managed to make significant progress in agreeing the parameters and modalities of the JCPOA restoration process, also managed to determine the response and sequence of the steps to be taken by the United States and Iran, also analyze how the relevant commitments will be consolidated and ensure their verification," the Russian Foreign Ministry official said.
She stressed that "along with a complete revision of the anti-Iranian restrictions previously adopted by the US side, which contradict the JCPOA and the [UN Security Council] resolution, the priority, of course, is the speedy restoration of the IAEA verification activities in Iran on the scale that was set by the Joint Plan of Action." Zakharova added that the "secret of the vitality" of the JCPOA is that these arrangements have no reasonable alternative, "and without them, security measures become more vulnerable".
Nevertheless, so far there has been no practical step on the part of the US to abandon its destructive course of pressure on Iran. "It is regrettable and troubling to note that while the current US administration has declared its desire to return to the JCPOA, it has not yet taken any practical steps that would indicate a reversal of its predecessors' destructive course. All of the earlier unilateral sanctions against Iran, along with restrictions and bans on JCPOA projects to reconfigure Iran's nuclear program, remain in place," the diplomat said.
In Vienna, since April, face-to-face negotiations between Iran and the international "five" (Russia, Britain, Germany, China and France) are being held with the aim of restoring the Iranian nuclear agreement in its original form: lifting US sanctions on Iran, Iran's fulfilling its nuclear obligations, and the return of the United States to the deal. Representatives of the JCPOA member states also hold separate consultations with the US delegation without Iranian participation. There have been no direct talks between US emissaries and Iranian representatives in Vienna.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Sergey Bobylev / TASS
Based on materials from TASS