TEHRAN — Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein
Amir-Abdollahian will head to Moscow on Tuesday, his ministry said, days after
negotiations to salvage the Iran nuclear deal stalled amid new Russian demands.
اضافة اعلان
“Russia has made its official demands loud
and clear, and this needs to be discussed among all parties to the 2015
agreement, like all the demands that have been presented by other parties,”
foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters on Monday.
“The foreign ministers of the parties (to the
2015
Iranian nuclear deal) are in constant contact” and Amir-Abdollahian “will
go to Moscow on Tuesday to continue the discussions,” Khatibzadeh added.
More than 10 months of talks in Vienna have
brought major powers close to renewing the landmark 2015
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on regulating Iran’s nuclear program.
But the negotiations were halted after Russia
on March 5 demanded guarantees that Western sanctions imposed following its
invasion of Ukraine would not damage its trade with Iran.
On March 11, the
EU’s foreign policy chief
Josep Borrell tweeted that the pause was “due to external factors,” despite the
fact that “a final text is essentially ready and on the table”.
The United States then put the ball in Iran
and Russia’s courts.
“We are confident that we can achieve mutual
return to compliance ... (if) those decisions are made in places like Tehran
and Moscow,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price.
US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken has
dismissed as “irrelevant” the Russian demands for guarantees, saying that they
“just are not in any way linked together”.
But on Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry
spokesman repeated Tehran’s position that the move had to come from the US.
“The remaining issues and points between us
and the United States need political decisions in Washington,” Khatibzadeh
said.
“If they (the US) announce that they have
made a decision, then all the delegations can return to Vienna” to finalize a
deal, he said, adding that for now “we are not at the point of announcing the
agreement.”
Russian
demands
Russia
and Iran have seen relations improve in recent years, and
Moscow plays a
central role in enforcing the 2015 pact, in particular by receiving excess
enriched uranium from Tehran.
Nobody should seek to exploit JCPOA negotiations to obtain assurances that are separate to the JCPOA.
Iranian analyst Ahmad Zeidabadi said it was
“normal” for Amir-Abdollahian to go to Moscow to ask “about the reasons behind
the Russian demands”.
“Either he will try to persuade the
Russians to make balanced demands, or he will support their position if he finds the
reasons convincing.”
The JCPOA aimed to ensure Iran would not be
able to develop a nuclear weapon, which it has always denied seeking.
On Saturday, Britain, France and Germany
warned against moves to “exploit” the JCPOA, seen as a tacit warning to Russia.
“Nobody should seek to exploit JCPOA
negotiations to obtain assurances that are separate to the JCPOA,” the British,
French and German foreign ministries said in a statement.
“This risks the collapse of the deal,
depriving the
Iranian people of sanctions lifting and the international
community of the assurance needed on Iran’s nuclear program,” they added.
The 2105 deal gave Iran sanctions relief in
exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
But the US unilaterally withdrew from the
accord in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump and imposed tough economic sanctions
on different sectors, including oil exports.
The current round of negotiations started in
late November in the Austrian capital between
Iran and Britain, China, France,
Germany, and Russia, with the US taking part indirectly.
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