ASTANA, October 6. /TASS/. Moscow expects that Washington will regard the Iran nuclear deal as relevant, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after talks with Kazakhstani Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov.
Washington Post earlier reported that US President Donald Trump will declare next week how Washington will comply with this agreement in the future. The American leader actually plans to reject this deal the way it currently stands, the newspaper said.
"I don’t like commenting on gossip, and I respect mass media opinion, but this is, still, mere guesswork," Lavrov said in response to a request for comment about the American media reports. Moscow sees "signals from the White House regarding President Trump’s intentions to make a final decision on whether to preserve the US participation in the agreement on settlement of the Iran nuclear program," he said.
"We believe that this program is one of the most important achievements of the global community and that its implementation makes feasible contribution to strengthening of the nuclear nonproliferation regime. It would be very important to fully preserve it, and the US participation would be a very important factor in this regard," the minister stressed.
"We hope that the current contacts between European states, other global community members and Washington that involve this issue will not be futile and that the ultimate decision that the US president will make will be measured and based on the current circumstances. And the current circumstances, as they stand, will definitely make this program highly desirable," the Russian foreign minister highlighted.
On July 14, 2015, Iran and the six-nation group (Russia, UK, China, US, France and Germany) reached an agreement on settlement of the long-standing Iran nuclear problem by adopting the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). This plan lifts sanctions introduced against Iran due to its nuclear program by the UN Security Council, the US and the European Union. In return, Tehran obliged to limit its nuclear activity by placing it under international control. The deal was launched in January 2016.