MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd November, 2018) Russia should find mechanisms enabling it to continue cooperating with Iran in spite of the new sanctions that Washington is set to introduce against Tehran on November 5, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview for the Financial Times newspaper, released on Friday.
"We believe we should look for mechanisms that would allow us to continue developing cooperation with our partners, with Iran," Novak told the Financial Times.
He explained that a deal that the two countries signed in May 2017 allowed Tehran to use part of its oil income for paying for Russian goods.
According to Novak, Iran needs Russian services and technologies, since Russia helps it to build thermal stations and railways, and also delivers high-tech equipment and agriculture products to Iran.
"We already live in the conditions of sanctions. We do not recognize the sanctions introduced unilaterally without the United Nations, we consider those methods illegal per se," Novak said, emphasizing that Moscow was not concerned over US sanctions' possible influence on its ability to purchase Iranian oil.
In May, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, and reimpose its sanctions against Iran that had been lifted under the agreement. While the first round of the US restrictions came into force in August, the next sanctions package, due to hit Iran's oil sector, among others, is set to be re-imposed on November 5. The United States also seeks to force other countries to reduce their imports of Iranian oil to zero.
On October 17, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that Russia firmly opposed the expansion of US sanctions against Iran.
