Russian deputy foreign minister sees little chance now of reviving Iran nuclear deal
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview published on Tuesday that he saw little chance at the moment of reviving a 2015 deal to limit Iran's nuclear programme.
Ryabkov made the comments to the Izvestia news outlet before U.S. President Donald Trump announced an agreement for a ceasefire between Iran and Israel after more than a week of trading air strikes.
Ryabkov was speaking after the United States launched its own strikes against Iranian nuclear sites, claiming to have "completely and totally obliterated" Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities.
"I do not see at the moment, conditions for restoring the (Iran deal)," Ryabkov told Izvestia, referring to the 2015 accord, known as the JCPOA.
"But this does not mean abandoning diplomacy, quite the opposite. Now is the time to redouble our efforts to achieve to come to some decisions that would help stabilise the situation."
Ryabkov said Russia "understood the logic and argumentation of our friends in Tehran, and of course this means an end to the strikes an end to further escalation by the other side.
"This is the clear pre-condition for our Iranian colleagues to consider their political-diplomatic options."
Russia has denounced Israel's strikes on Iranian targets and Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that "unjustified" U.S. attacks on Iran's nuclear sites were pushing the world towards great danger.
Russia's U.N. ambassador described U.S. arguments that Iran was moving towards creating nuclear bombs as a resumption of U.S. "fairy tales" about the Middle East.
The Iran nuclear deal was clinched in 2015 with the aim of limiting Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for relief from sanctions imposed on Tehran.
U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the pact in 2018 during his first term in office. The United States and Iran had been holding talks on the programme, but Iran cancelled the latest meeting after the first Israeli strikes. REUTERS
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