MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st July, 2020) Iran has praised Russia and China for taking steps toward preserving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday in Moscow before a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.
The Iranian minister also highlighted that Moscow has been opposing Washington's "destructive" and "very dangerous" actions against the JCPOA within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and in the United Nations Security Council.
"We are very pleased that Russia, both withing the IAEA and the Security Council, is opposing that destructive policy, which was carried out there ... This lead to the fact that the role of Russia and the role of China in preserving the JCPOA become very prominent, and all the international community is recognizing it," Zarif said.
The top Iranian diplomat also wished for Tehran-Moscow relations, which he described as "the best in recent decades," to strengthen even more in the future.
In July 2015, Iran signed a nuclear agreement with China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany and the European Union. The JCPOA stipulates that Iran must scale back its nuclear program and downgrade its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including the lifting of the UN arms embargo five years after the accord was adopted. The agreement has been in crisis since May 2018, when the US unilaterally withdrew from it and reintroduced sanctions on Tehran.
