TEHRAN, April 13. /TASS/. Tehran has expressed its readiness to immediately start moving towards fully implementing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) under the Iran nuclear deal provided that the US takes corresponding steps, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference after talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday.
Russia expects the Iran nuclear deal to be preserved, the top diplomat said. "As you know, the way towards preserving the plan, and we have stressed this on many occasions, lies solely through its consistent and full-fledged implementation by all the parties concerned in strict compliance with [UN] Security Council Resolution 2231. We expect that the JCPOA will be preserved and Washington will finally return to fully implementing the Security Council’s resolution, which, in turn, will create pre-requisites for Iran to comply with all the requirements of the nuclear deal," Lavrov pointed out.
"As far as we understand, the partners in Tehran express their readiness to immediately move in that direction, given corresponding steps required from the United States," Russia’s foreign minister said.
Moscow denounces any attempts to disrupt the negotiations of Iran and the international quintet (Russia, Germany, France, Great Britain and China) on the JCPOA implementation, Russia’s top diplomat stressed.
"We support the negotiations going on at the Vienna venue and denounce any attempts to disrupt these most important talks," Lavrov pointed out.
Last week, Vienna hosted this year’s first face-to-face meeting of the joint commission of Iran and the JCPOA’s five other participants (Russia, China, Germany, Great Britain and France). US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley was also in Vienna for discussions.
The participants in the meeting at the level of political directors discussed the issues of returning to full compliance with the JCPOA provisions. The meeting aimed to map out tasks for further work of two expert groups: for the lifting of US sanctions from Iran and for compliance with Tehran’s commitments in the nuclear sphere.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry’s press office reported on Friday that the joint commission of Iran and the international quintet would convene for the next face-to-face meeting in Vienna on April 14.