Lavrov slams US statements on Iran nuclear deal

The Russian top diplomat says Russia won’t back the US-proposed amendments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program

MOSCOW- Washington’s statements on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for Iran’s nuclear program will not boost optimism and stability, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on Friday, summarizing the results of Moscow’s diplomatic activities in 2017, Tass reported.

“The recent statements aimed at disrupting the implementation of the JCPOA have boosted neither optimism nor stability,” he said. “We will seek to maintain the agreements on the Iranian nuclear program, we will seek to normalize the situation around the Palestinian-Israeli settlement,” he said. “The Middle East problems are profoundly exacerbated by the fact that the Palestinian issue continues to be unresolved.”

“We will continue our efforts to make the US accept the realty,” he said. “The reality is that Iran has been fulfilling all its obligations under the JCPOA, which has been regularly verified by the IAEA director general,” the Russian top diplomat stressed.

“Another review is nearing within several months, and I cannot even think about consequences if the United States indeed slams the door. Of course, Iran will not consider itself bound with obligations prescribed by the JCPOA in a situation like that,” he the minister said.

“Hopefully, our European partners, which will be strongly lured by Americans, will be sticking without taking out what is prescribed by the JCPOA,” he added.

Russia won’t back the US-proposed amendments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, he said. “What the United States is trying to do – amending the text of the deal by including issues that are absolutely unacceptable for Iran – we won’t back this,” Lavrov stressed.

Among other tasks of Russian diplomacy in 2018, Lavrov mentioned continued war on terror, in which progress has been made in Syria. According to the minister, the time has come to go over to the political settlement in Syria. “Together with our Turkish and Iranian partners, we are getting ready for the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, which also provides for the participation of a wide range of Syrian forces. That is required in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2254,” he said.

Lavrov noted that last year a priority of Russia’s foreign policy was upholding the universal values of truth, justice, equitable cooperation based on mutual trust, along with efforts to prevent the degradation of the world order system and its sliding into chaos and confrontation.

According to Lavrov, as far as foreign policy is concerned, 2017 proved to be a difficult year, the situation “very much deteriorated in the past months in the wake of Washington’s threats to use military force to resolve the Korean Peninsula’s nuclear issue.” “Similar threats were voiced in connection with the Afghan issue, as a military solution was said to be the only possible one,” the Russian top diplomat added.

M.Wassouf