TEHRAN (Iran News) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow welcomes direct negotiations between Tehran and Washington, adding that Russia is ready to help both countries to begin the negotiations.
Addressing students of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Lavrov said that Moscow is ready to hold talks with both sides to pave the way for direct negotiations between Iran and the United States, but only if both sides are interested, IRNA reported.
“We believe that it is better to raise differences and issues directly and receive direct answers,” he said.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Russian top diplomat pointed to the US attempts to snap back UN sanctions on Iran, saying that the attempts are doomed to fail.
Lavrov said that Washington has lost all its rights with Iran by abandoning its obligations under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The US withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at forcing it to renegotiate a new deal.
“The United States wants now to use a rather complex, sophisticated legal instrument, which was laid down in the JCPOA and approved by the United Nations Security Council, to restore the collective sanctions,” he said, according to Xinhua news agency.
“But this mechanism was prepared exclusively for a situation when Iran does not fulfill its obligations, which is not the case,” he said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has insisted that the United States has the legal right to “snap back” UN sanctions even though President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers that was endorsed by the UN Security Council.
Russia and China, along with European allies Britain, France and Germany, who often disagree, are united in declaring the US action “illegal” on grounds that you can’t withdraw from a deal and then use the resolution that endorsed it to reimpose sanctions.
- source : Iran Daily
