Americas

Russia seeks restoring JCPOA, removal anti-Iran bans in Vienna

Moscow says it will insist on the resumption of full implementation of the Iran nuclear deal, as well as lifting of anti-Tehran sanctions during the Vienna talks slated for November’s end.

“On November 29, it is planned to resume talks of the signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on settling the situation around the Iranian nuclear program. We will insist on implementing the agreements reached under this document in 2015, on their full implementation,” he stated.

“It means that the United States should resume the implementation of its commitments, including lift all the sanctions imposed in the context of the JCPOA,” Lavrov stressed.

According to the Russian top diplomat, the Iran nuclear deal was among the topics discussed in Paris during the 2+2 meeting between Russian and French defense and foreign ministers.

“Here, we have prospects for more constructive cooperation,” he added.

The JCPOA has had six offline meetings in Vienna since April to find ways to restore the nuclear deal in its original form. The sides discuss prospects for the United States’ possible return to the deal, steps needed to ensure full compliance with the deal’s terms by Iran, and issues of lifting the anti-Iranian sanctions.

The JCPOA, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed between Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Russia, the United Kingdom, China, the United States and France) and Germany in 2015. Under the deal, Iran undertook to curb its nuclear activities and place them under total control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in exchange of abandonment of the sanctions imposed previously by the United Nations Security Council, the European Union and the United States over its nuclear program.

The future of the deal was called in question after the United States’ unilateral pullout in May 2018 and Washington’s unilateral oil export sanctions against Teheran. Iran argued that all other participants, Europeans in the first place, were ignoring some of their own obligations in the economic sphere, thus making the deal in its current shape senseless. This said, it began to gradually scale down its commitments under the deal.

Meanwhile, US’ incumbent President Joe Biden has repeatedly signaled his readiness to return the US to the deal.

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