Russia says missing chances of resuming JCPOA would be a mistake

“We assume that the agreement to resume it was reached quite a while ago. Now, European countries have lost their enthusiasm for some reason, and US officials say via different channels on the conditions of anonymity that another option should be sought. It appears to me that it would be a huge mistake to skip the chance of resuming this deal,” the top Russian diplomat stated on Tuesday at a news conference to sum up the results of his visit to the United States within the framework of Russia’s presidency in the UN Security Council.

He also noted the normalization of relations between Arab countries and Iran.

“This is a very healthy process. We, in principle, favor establishing some mechanisms of cooperation, transparency, confidence-building in the Gulf region. At this stage, the resumption of the deal does not depend on Iran, or Russia, or China. The ones who destroyed it must now bring it back to life,” Lavrov continued.

The previously agreed document is fully in line with this goal, he added.

“Attempts to create new requirements that were not mentioned in the initial text <…> complicate the process and reflect the policy of grasping unilateral advantages through bargaining or blackmail,” the minister stated.

Iran has cautioned the United States that the window of opportunity for an agreement on reviving the nuclear deal will not remain open forever, urging Washington to adopt a constructive approach to salvage the accord.

Iran showed to the world the peaceful nature of its nuclear program by signing the JCPOA with six world states — namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China. But, Washington’s unilateral withdrawal in May 2018 and its subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the deal in limbo.

Negotiations between the parties to the landmark agreement kicked off in Vienna in April 2021, with the intention of bringing the US back into the deal and putting an end to its “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.

The discussions, however, have been at a standstill since August 2022 due to Washington’s insistence on not lifting all of the anti-Iran sanctions and offering the necessary guarantees that it will not exit the agreement again.