ANKARA, August 29. /TASS/. Despite its stated desire to resurrect the Black Sea grain deal, the United Nations cannot ensure that Russia’s conditions for resuming the deal will be met, Hasan Oktay, director of the Turkey-based Kafkassam analytical center, told TASS.

"The UN and a number of Western nations will not be able to fulfil conditions for Russia for the resumption of its participation in the deal. This is a serious political problem that actually brings the idea of reviving the deal in its previous variant to a deadlock. The point is that Russia is seeking the softening of sanctions imposed on it. If this occurs, then it will actually turn out that Moscow is prevailing in the continuing Russian-Ukrainian conflict. This is unacceptable for many countries in the West," Oktay said.

The UN had "promised Russia to take a number of steps for the softening of restrictions" prior to signing the initial deal agreements in Istanbul in July 2022, formally called the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the expert noted. "This pertained to the reconnection of [Russian] banks to SWIFT, supplies of [Russian] fertilizers, agricultural machinery, ship insurance, and other things. However, the West and UN did not do that due to certain reasons, predominantly of a political nature," he added.

Discussions and consultations on the restart of the previous grain deal will still continue but no breakthrough results should be expected in the current situation, the Kafkassam center director said. "There are no options to soften sanctions against Russia. There will be no deal without that, as Moscow reiterated earlier. Turkey will hardly be able to do anything in terms of mediation under such conditions," Oktay noted.