Both Iran and the United States criticize Russia’s efforts to integrate the Ukraine conflict into Iran’s nuclear talks. Iran says the deal is nearing talks.
Russia made new demands over the weekend in nuclear talks with Iran.
After years of negotiations, a close deal was reached over the weekend, but then Russia put forward a list of last-minute demands that make it difficult to reach an agreement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demands that the United States provide it with a written undertaking that the international sanctions imposed on Russia will not be to the detriment of trade, investment and “military cooperation” between it and Iran.
Iran accuses Russia of harassment
Russia’s last-minute demands irritated Iran. According to the Iranian state news agency Tasnim, Iranian negotiators accused Russia of disrupting the talks.
According to Iranians, Russia wants to halt the agreement to keep Iran out of the international oil market and thus guarantee higher oil revenues for itself.
An agreement with Iran would bring a large amount of Iranian crude oil to the world market, which would help replace Russian oil.
The United States also criticized Russia for stalling the talks. Foreign minister Antony Blinken According to him, the sanctions imposed on Russia due to the war in Ukraine have nothing to do with the Iranian nuclear deal.
Representative of Iran and Head of Security Policy Ali Shamkhani wrote on Twitter today that Iran plans to step up efforts to reach an agreement.
Cooperation between Iran and Russia has increased since it was extremely conservative and hard-line Ebrahim Raisi was elected president last summer.
Iran agrees to limit its nuclear program
Negotiations to restore Iran’s nuclear deal have taken place since the former president Donald Trump pulled the agreement from the United States and imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018.
A breakthrough in protracted negotiations was achieved last week when Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program.
In response to Trump’s actions, Iran repeatedly began to violate an agreement that came into force in 2015, allowing Iran to limit its nuclear program to a level that would make it impossible for it to acquire a nuclear weapon.
It is estimated that Iran has since come very close to developing a nuclear weapon.
The International Energy Agency (IAEA) estimated last fall that Iran has 10 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent.
The enrichment rate of uranium required for nuclear weapons is 90%.
Nuclear treaty negotiations are likely to proceed without Russia.
– If Russia continues to disrupt the talks, the other parties and Iran will seek a creative solution to reach an agreement without Moscow’s involvement, Eurasia Group’s Iranian researcher Henry Rome said the news agency Reuters.
Iran’s original nuclear deal was signed in 2015 between Iran, China, Russia, the United States, Britain, Germany and France.