TEHRAN, March 7. /TASS/. Iran is opposed to the West’s sanctions against Russia, introduced amid the worsening of the situation in Ukraine, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Monday.
"Amir-Abdollahian said that he was against war just as he was against sanctions, adding that Iran’s cooperation with any country, including Russia should not be affected by the sanction issue," the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s press-service said.
On March 5, Lavrov said that Moscow had demanded written guarantees from Washington at least at the secretary of state level the sanctions situation would not harm its cooperation with Tehran. He explained that against the backdrop of the latest western sanctions Russia wanted to have a "very clear answer" from the United States in the context of bilateral Moscow-Tehran relations and the Iranian nuclear deal.
The 8th round of negotiations on the restoration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the United States’ return to the fold of that multilateral agreement is nearing completion. This work is in progress within the framework of consultations by a joint commission of Iran and the international quintet (Russia, Britain, Germany, China and France), separate consultations without Iran’s involvement and in three working groups. The negotiators are working on a draft final document. Hopefully the eighth round may become the last one. The negotiators are determined to be through with their mission in the near future.