Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and US Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland discussed the situation around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and Iran’s nuclear program. About this, as reported by TASS, said the head of the press service of the US State Department Ned Price during the briefing.
Price said the JCPOA is one of those areas in which Moscow and Washington have common interests, in particular, preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. He noted that the two countries have a number of disagreements on a wide range of issues, but “when it comes to our common interest in the mutual return of the United States and Iran to comply with the JCPOA, this is the area where the interests of the United States and the Russian Federation coincide.”
The JCPOA agreement on Iran was concluded in the summer of 2015 between Tehran and six intermediary countries. Later, Iran was caught in gross violations of the agreements. In early May 2018, the United States announced a unilateral withdrawal from the deal and the resumption of anti-Iranian sanctions. Iran announced the abandonment of the JCPOA agreements in January 2020.
On June 20, 2021, the sixth round of negotiations on the full restoration of the JCPOA, which also implies a return to this deal by the United States, ended in Vienna, the sixth since April of this year. Then Washington said that they would return to the negotiating table under the new leadership of Iran.
On July 29, the United States announced that it is ready to return to negotiations on a nuclear deal with Iran as soon as the process of the transfer of presidential power is completed in Tehran after the election of the head of state.