Britain, France and Germany warned Russia on Saturday against exploiting talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the nuclear deal, after Moscow demanded guarantees to maintain trade with Iran.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has recently requested comprehensive guarantees that Russia’s trade with Iran would not be affected by the sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
“Nobody should seek to exploit JCPOA negotiations to obtain assurances that are separate to the JCPOA,” said a statement on Saturday from the spokespersons for the British, French, and German foreign ministries — the three European parties to the negotiations.
“This risks the collapse of the deal, depriving the Iranian people of sanctions lifting and the international community of the assurance needed on Iran’s nuclear program,” they added.
The 11-month-old international talks seek to secure Iran’s compliance with the agreement’s restrictions on its rapidly advancing nuclear activities and bring the United States back to the deal.
Former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reinstated crippling sanctions against Iran. Tehran subsequently fell out of compliance with some terms of the deal.
As negotiations in Vienna were suspended as a result of “external factors”, as announced by the European Union, US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that progress with the talks was dependent on Iran and Russia.
“If that political will is there, if that seriousness of purpose is there, we remain confident that we can achieve a mutual return to compliance in fairly short order,” Price said on Friday.
Tehran has close ties with Moscow at the political, economic and military levels. Russia also played a key role in the deal and its implementation mechanisms, such as the transfer of enriched uranium from Iran to its territory.
