Zarif delivers important message to Putin, two countries agree on strategic cooperation
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced finalization of long-term strategic cooperation deal with between Iran and Russia as he delivered an important message from President Rouhani to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
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During a third visit to Russia in the past six months, Zarif said ina tweet late on Tuesday that he had delivered an important message to Putin, adding that he had held extensive talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on bilateral cooperation as well as regional and global coordination.
The top Iranian diplomat said both Tehran and Moscow had “identical views” on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with major world countries, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and highlighted the need for upholding international law.
Zarif also underlined that Iran and Russia had “agreed to conclude [a] long-term comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement.”
Zarif traveled to Russia on Tuesday to hold talks with senior Russian officials on issues of bilateral and regional significance. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi also accompanied Zarif during his visit.
In a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Zarif said Iran-Russia relations are at their strongest in decades, adding that such sustainable ties will benefit both countries and guarantee global peace and security.
Lavrov, for his part, said his meeting with Zarif was an “important stage” in the joint efforts by the remaining members of the JCPOA to maintain this “most important achievement of multilateral diplomacy.”
Lavrov emphasized that there are still chances to preserve the international nuclear accord.
The JCPOA was reached between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the P5+1 group — the US, Britain, France, Russia, and China plus Germany — in 2015 in Austrian capital, Vienna.
In May 2018, US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled his country out of the JCPOA and later re-imposed the sanctions that had been lifted against Tehran on the back of the deal.
Although it is no longer a party to the deal, the US is currently exerting pressure on the UN Security Council to extend an arms embargo against Iran, which will expire under the JCPOA in October, as part of Washington’s so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
Tehran has firmly rejected Washington’s plans, stating that the US is no longer a party to the nuclear deal ever since it withdrew from the multilateral agreement.
China and Russia, which are both signatories to the JCPOA, have echoed Iran's position.
