LUEBECK /Germany/, April 16. Many countries will be interested in reestablishing cooperation with Iran once anti-Teheran sanctions are lifted, and Italy is among them, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Wednesday after a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations [Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, the United States, France, and Japan] in Germany’s Luebeck.
He said it was normal that many countries would race to reestablish contacts with Iran after sanctions were lifted and Italy would be among the first to reestablish economic ties with Teheran.
- Iranian president says nuclear deal possible if all sanctions are lifted
- US plans to negotiate final Iran nuclear deal within 2.5 months — Kerry
- Six world powers seek to conclude lasting agreement with Iran — French foreign ministry
- Merkel calls for unified approach in lifting sanctions from Iran
- Moscow's decision to deliver S-300 to Iran will not affect nuclear talks — EU commission
"First, however, a goal [a final accord on the Iranian nuclear program - TASS] must be reached. It probably doesn't help to get ahead of things," he noted when asked to comment on Russia’s lifting its ban on exports of S-300 missile systems to Iran.
On Monday, April 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to lift the ban on S-300 exports to Iran. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday Russia’s voluntary embargo on deliveries of S-300 missile systems to Iran was no longer needed due to progress around Iran’s nuclear program.
He said that initially, the decision to suspend the implementation of the contract, which was already signed and came into force, was made in September 2010 to support consolidated efforts of the six international negotiators on Iran’s nuclear program to stimulate a maximally constructive process of talks.
This year, Lavrov said, the six international mediators (the so-called P5+1 group), after a regular round of talks with Iran on April 2 in Lausanne, Switzerland, had reached "substantial progress in settling [the problem around] Iran’s nuclear program."
The P5+1 group is the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France - plus Germany.
Prospective deal in Iran-P5+1 talks
Iran says it needs nuclear power to generate electricity, but Western powers led by the United States claim Teheran's eventual aim is to create nuclear weapons.
At a meeting in Vienna in November 2014, the P5+1 and Tehran agreed to extend the deadline for a deal in the talks on Iran’s nuclear program to June 30, 2015.
The latest round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group in Lausanne ended April 2 with the conclusion of a joint comprehensive action plan on the Iranian nuclear program, to be adopted by June 30.
As the plan is being implemented, all political and economic sanctions are to be lifted from Teheran. Meanwhile, on April 9 media quoted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as saying that if sanctions were not lifted first, Iran would sign no nuclear deal with the six international negotiators.