MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. Moscow hopes Washington will realize that the Iran nuclear deal is viable after reviewing it, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS on Friday.
"We took note of information from Washington that an additional analysis of agreements with Iran on its nuclear program is beginning there," Ryabkov said. "We would like to hope that this analysis will confirm that this agreement is viable and useful for enhancing international peace and regional stability," he said.
Ryabkov stressed that Moscow "has been consistently working to enhance" the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
All claims ‘rolled into one’
Moscow criticizes Washington’s strive to "unite in one agenda not only the issues regarding the JCPOA implementation, but a whole range of claims to Tehran not related to the nuclear affairs. "This is a non-productive path and we will oppose this," Ryabkov said.
Russia also has some serious questions for US representatives, especially regarding the actions of US financial regulators that create obstacles for business projects as US business and state structures "have some suspicions that these projects and this work may be related to the Iran nuclear program," he stressed.
"We see here a non-productive approach when completely different issues are rolled into one," Ryabkov said. "We will demand that Washington should pay due attention to our complaints," he said.
US claims
US President Donald Trump ordered the National Security Council to review the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said.
"President Donald J. Trump has directed a National Security Council-led interagency review of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that will evaluate whether suspension of sanctions related to Iran pursuant to the JCPOA is vital to the national security interests of the United States," Tillerson said in a letter to Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives.
Tillerson added that when the US administration expects to work jointly with the Congress on the issue once the interagency review is over.
Earlier in the day, Trump said that Iran was "not living up to the spirit" of the nuclear deal signed under President Obama. Trump has repeatedly called the 2015 Iran nuclear deal a "disaster."
US Foreign Policy magazine reported on Monday that the Trump administration was considering enhancing the current US sanctions against Iran in order to make it comply with the nuclear deal. Expanding US sanctions against Iran remains one of the options currently on table, according to the US magazine.
Iran and the P5+1 group of international mediators signed a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program on July 14, 2015 in Vienna. Under the deal, Iran undertakes to limit its nuclear activities and allow transparent international control of its nuclear program. Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will monitor nuclear facilities in Iran for the next 25 years.
In exchange, UN, US and European Union sanctions will be gradually removed from Iran. The arms embargo imposed by UN Security Council will be kept in place for five years, ban for supplying ballistic missile technologies to Iran - for eight years. If any points of the agreement are violated by Iran, sanctions against the country will be renewed.