TEHRAN – Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart, Hussein Amir-Abdollahian, have called in a telephone conversation for the Iran nuclear deal to be restored to its original form.
“The parties focused on the situation around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran’s nuclear program and the prospects for resuming the Vienna negotiations on the JCPOA,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Satruday. “They called for restoring the nuclear deal in its original balanced form, approved by the United Nations Security Council. They confirmed that it was the only way to ensure the rights and interests of all parties to the comprehensive agreement.”
The JCPOA was signed in 2015 between Tehran and six other countries, including the Europeans, China and Russia.
The United States withdrew from the deal in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, and Iran has since consistently increased activity in its nuclear program, including expanding its stockpile of enriched uranium, arguing that it is no longer subject to the terms of the vacated deal.
Trump’s successor, President Joe Biden, has expressed interest in rejoining the pact, however, he has refused to take any practical step to undo the past wrongs, including draconian sanctions illegally imposed on the Islamic Republic.
Negotiations are expected to resume on November 29, with President Ebrahim Raisi vowing on Thursday that Iran would not back down “in any way.”
However, Iran has also said that its increased efforts to enrich uranium and other measures taken as per an article of the nuclear agreement are reversible if Washington removes imposed, reimposed and relabeled sanctions and rejoins the pact.