TEHRAN — Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov have dismissed U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s “delusional” plan to keep Washington a participant state in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in order to extend the UN arms embargo on Iran.

In a phone talk on Tuesday, the two chief diplomats rejected the new U.S. scheme as “impractical”.

It came after U. Pompeo said he is preparing a legal argument that the U.S. would remain a participant in the JCPOA as part of an intricate strategy to pressure the UN Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Tehran.

According to Pompeo’s plan, expected to be opposed by many of the U.S.’s European allies, Washington would, in essence, claim it legally remains a “participant state” in the nuclear accord only for the purposes of invoking a “snapback” that would restore the UN sanctions on Iran that were in place before the nuclear deal.

Russia has already told American and European officials it is eager to resume conventional arms sales to Iran.

During their phone conversation, Zarif and Lavrov also talked about the latest political developments in Afghanistan and the ongoing efforts to establish reconciliation and political consensus in that country.

MH/PA