Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on 25 April that missing the chance to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – also known as the Iran nuclear deal – would be a “huge mistake” by the west.
“We assume that the agreement to [revive the JCPOA] 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,” Lavrov said to reporters in New York after chairing a meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC).
The Kremlin’s top diplomat added that reviving the JCPOA “does not depend on Iran, or Russia, or China,” stressing that “the ones who destroyed it must now bring it back to life.”
He also said that the previously agreed document fully aligns with this goal.
“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,” Lavrov said.
In 2018, the White House scrapped the JCPOA to impose a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign on Iran. Talks between Iran and the remaining signatories of the Obama-era deal – Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany – continued until late last year when US officials claimed Iran was making “unconstructive” demands to revive the deal.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping urgedwestern leaders to push for the restoration of the JCPOA.
During his news conference on Tuesday, Lavrov also took time to hail the growing normalization of ties between Iran and several Arab nations, chief among them Saudi Arabia.
“This is a very healthy process. We, in principle, favor establishing some mechanisms of cooperation, transparency, and confidence-building in the Gulf region,” the Russian official said.