Tehran - Russia’s top negotiator to the Vienna talks on the removal of anti-Iran sanctions, Mikhail Ulyanov, says Tehran is “absolutely right” to be asking for guarantees from Washington after the unilateral withdrawal of the country from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Ulyanov, who is also Russia’s ambassador to international organizations in the Austrian capital, made the remark in a post on his Twitter account early on Tuesday, in response to baseless anti-Iran allegations of Richard Goldberg — a member of the so-called Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
The Russian diplomat defended Iran’s stance on securing a guarantee from the American side so that Washington would not ditch the JCPOA just like what it did at the time of former U.S. president Donald Trump in 2018.
“Some people don’t want to learn lessons from the failed maximum pressure policy. Iranians are absolutely right when they ask for guarantees against a repetition of this catastrophic adventure,” Ulyanov tweeted.
The United States unilaterally abandoned the multilateral nuclear deal in 2018 despite Iran’s full compliance with its nuclear undertakings, as repeatedly certified by the UN nuclear agency. The U.S. then unleashed a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, which practically deprived the country of all of the deal’s economic benefits.

Vienna Talks Get More Serious

On Tuesday, Iran’s top negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani met with the envoys of the European Union (EU) and three European countries in the Austrian capital of Vienna as Vienna talks get more serious.
The meeting was held with the participation of a number of experts at the Coburg Hotel in Vienna. This meeting was in continuation of meeting within the framework of the eighth round of the talks that

have taken place on a regular basis over the past few weeks since the new round began.
The Vienna talks on Monday became more serious with the return of the heads of the negotiating delegations of Iran and three European countries to Vienna from their respective capitals after a few-day recess. Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA – Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany – have been holding talks in Vienna since April last year. Iran says it pursues the removal of all sanctions that the United States re-imposed on Iran following its withdrawal from the deal.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian reaffirmed on Monday that Tehran has no intention to waste time or derail the sanctions removal talks in Vienna, criticizing the West, particularly the U.S., for failing to present any innovative proposals in the negotiations.