Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that some Western partners want Iran to make a mistake and declare steps which will be in breach of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“I’m not ruling out that some our partners want Iran to make a mistake and declare certain steps that are not in line with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, then someone in the West would breathe easily and shun the responsibility with a clean conscience,” TASS quoted him as saying during a speech at the Primakov Readings forum.

“This will be very regrettable,” Lavrov said, noting that he expects that Europe will be committed to the UN Security Council’s resolutions.

Pointing to German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas’s visit to Tehran on Monday, he said, “I will be waiting with interest for a briefing on the outcome of German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas’s trip to Tehran.”

“As far as the prospects of preserving the JCPOA are concerned, here a lot depends of the Europeans,” he noted.

Maas met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

During his meeting with Zarif, Maas said that Germany supports the JCPOA and recognizes Iran’s right to enjoy benefits of the deal.

But he acknowledged that the economic benefits Tehran hoped for from the deal were now “more difficult to obtain”, but urged Iran to fully respect the agreement.

It is in Iran’s “political and strategic interest to maintain this agreement and the dialogue with Europe”, Maas said.

Maas said that the UK, France and Germany support the JCPOA. However, he said, “The position of our three European countries is that we support the JCPOA and we want to continue our commitments but we cannot expect miracles.”

During his meeting with Rouhani, Maas said that the EU will spare no effort to reduce tension in the region.

“Germany opposes the U.S. policies against Iran and is making efforts to keep the JCPOA and fulfil its obligation,” the German chief diplomat said.

Lavrov criticizes U.S. actions against Iran

Lavrov also said that the U.S. actions in relation to Iran constitute a clear attempt to make the international community ignore a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution to suffocate this country.

Lavrov was referring to the Resolution 2231 which endorsed the JCPOA.

Lavrov says the U.S. is forcing the international community to ignore UN Security Council Resolution confirming the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
“Lack of ability to reach an agreement is probably the nicest thing that one can say [about the United States’ actions against Tehran], because there is clearly an attempt to force the whole world to not comply with a UN Security Council resolution in order to achieve the goal of strangling a single country,” Sputnik quoted him as saying.

The U.S. quit the JCPOA in May 2018, re-imposed sanctions against Tehran and announced secondary sanctions against companies all over the world that do business with Iran.

On April 22 the U.S. announced that Washington has decided not to extend waivers allowing major importers to continue buying oil from Iran. The waivers ended on May 2.

On May 8, Iran announced a partial withdrawal from some aspects of the pact, saying that the country would no longer adhere to some of the limits on its nuclear activities. It also threatened to step up uranium enrichment if an agreement is not made within 60 days to shield it from the sanctions’ effects.

NA/PA