MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/. Moscow hopes that the United States will implement its earlier voiced intentions to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) under the Iran nuclear program, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Chinese mass media.

According to Lavrov, after having announced its withdrawal from the deal, Washington not only stopped with the implementation of its obligations, but also prohibited the rest of involved countries with the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution.

"The West took that decision as ‘what can we do because it was the US decision; this is the reality, although it would have been good if they continued with the implementation of the Iranian nuclear deal resolution’," the Russian foreign minister stated.

"However, this is not the reality, but a blatant violation of international rights, and a demonstration of the government’s complete inability of reaching agreements," Lavrov said. "I hope that today the US administration, which expressed intentions to return to the nuclear deal, will fulfill its voiced intentions."

The JCPOA was signed between Iran, five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Russia, the United Kingdom, China, the United States and France) and Germany in 2015.

The deal limited Iran’s nuclear development in exchange for lifting the UN sanctions, as well as the US and EU unilateral restrictions. Iran pledged not to enrich uranium above the level of 3.67% for 15 years and maintain enriched uranium stockpiles at the level not exceeding 300 kg, as well as not to build new heavy-water reactors, not to accumulate heavy water and not to develop nuclear weapons.

On May 8, 2018, the issue of the nuclear deal exacerbated dramatically after then-President of the United States Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the JCPOA and reimposed anti-Iranian economic sanctions.

US President Joe Biden repeatedly stated his country’s readiness to return to the previous nuclear deal with Iran, however, no practical steps were made so far by the US government in this regard.