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Iran reiterates its commitment to nuclear deal — Lavrov

The Russian top diplomat says Iran has once again pledged it will not abandon the nuclear deal despite Washington’s withdrawal from it

VIENNA, July 6. /TASS/. Iran has once again pledged it will not abandon the nuclear deal despite Washington’s withdrawal from it, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday after a ministerial meeting of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna.

"Responding to the calls of all the other parties to the deal, Iran reiterated its commitment to the agreements committed to paper in the JCPOA. It means that Iran will continue to cooperate with the IAEA, i.e. what the others had called on it to do," he said.

According to the Russian top diplomat, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that following the United States’ unilateral step towards actual breakdown of the deal his country had a formal right and an excuse to withdraw from the agreement as well, but Iran would not use it.

"I hope we will remain on these positions and, what is most important, Iran will keep on stocking to them," he added.

"Everyone has admitted that it is a substantial violation of the conditions that were agreed and actually allowed the tensions to be considerably lowered from the point of view of the military and political situation in the region, from the point of view of the strengthening of the non-proliferation regime and in the context of normalization of trade and economic ties with Iran," Lavrov said.

"Everyone agreed once more that Washington’s step had not been inspired by any other circumstances but the desire to politicize again the process, the situation around Iran and to set new conditions for Iran, which are not related to the problems existing around Iran’s nuclear program," the foreign minister said.

"Everyone agrees that this is an absolutely illegitimate practice, it cannot be taken for granted. However, this is a line of action that can hardly be changed. There is a serious fight ahead of us in the spheres of trade, economy and politics," the minister noted.

"We aim to develop such methods of maintaining trade and economic relations that would not create issues for economic operators of the countries that still form part of this deal," he added.