Russia FM Sergei Lavrov arrives in Iran to discuss Nuclear Deal, bilateral ties

The Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov arrived in Iran on Wednesday to address and discuss with the Iranian side bilateral ties and approaches to break the stalemate in the Iran nuclear talks, according to state-run IRIB TV. Lavrov further met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi soon after arriving in Tehran, the nation's capital, for his two-day visit at the request of Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the country's foreign minister. 

The state-run media reported that Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to meet Iran's senior officials to talk about the discussion that seeks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and global powers. However, it withheld any information about the meeting between Raisi and the Russian envoy. Furthermore, both the parties would talk about how to strengthen their bilateral connections in commerce and energy as well as the crises in Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine. 

Iran and Russia to talk about Iran's Nuclear Program

Apart from this, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, stressed that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) on Iran's Nuclear Program, the situation in Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Transcaucasia, Yemen, and the region surrounding the Caspian Sea are just a few of the urgent global issues that the parties intend to discuss, TASS reported.  

According to Zakharova, the ministers will also go through a bilateral agenda that includes, among other things, the execution of significant cooperative projects in the energy and transportation sectors as well as the potential for strengthening cultural and humanitarian connections. 

Meanwhile, it is worth noting that the United States has imposed severe sanctions on both Iran and Russia, which have limited their ability to export their energy to outside markets. 

Iran and the global powers had inked the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which is often known as the nuclear agreement, in July 2015 in exchange for the lifting of sanctions on Tehran. However, the former US President, Donald Trump withdrew the US from the deal in May 2018 and reinstated Washington's unilateral sanctions on Tehran, which led to Iran backtracking and reducing some of its nuclear obligations under the pact, Xinhua reported.  

Following that Iran and the remaining JCPOA members have been holding discussions to restore the agreement in the Austrian capital city ever since April 2021. According to a Xinhua report, Iran demands a verifiable easing of the sanctions and demands assurances that successive US administrations won't back out of the agreement. 

The diplomatic process, nevertheless, has stalled since March 2022, raising doubts about the negotiation's future after seeing significant progress that indicated a deal was only a few days away. 

(Image: AP)