On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that its minister, Sergei Lavrov, and Iran’s top leaders had aligned their positions on issues surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme during talks in Tehran.
According to a ministry statement, Lavrov discussed a wide range of bilateral and regional issues with both President Masoud Pezeshkian and his Iranian counterpart, Seyed Abbas Araghchi. “Positions were aligned on the situation around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian Nuclear Programme,” the statement said.
Russia is a signatory of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal, alongside the US, China, France, Britain, and Germany. The deal lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities.
During his visit to Tehran, Lavrov expressed confidence that diplomatic measures were still viable for resolving issues related to Iran’s nuclear programme.
Meanwhile, Rafael Grossi, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported last week that Iran continued to enrich uranium well beyond the needs for commercial nuclear use, despite UN pressure to halt the activity. Grossi noted that while the pace of uranium enrichment had slowed slightly since the end of last year, Iran was still enriching at an elevated rate of around 7 kg of uranium per month to 60% purity.