Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian. Archive photoMOSCOW, May 19.Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, in a conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, expressed Iran's readiness to act as a mediator to resolve the situation in Ukraine, the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry reports following the talks. «The Islamic Republic of Iran, based on excellent relations with Russia, supports any diplomatic attempts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine and is ready to mediate and help resolve this crisis,» the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a Telegram message. During the conversation, the parties also discussed bilateral relations, including an agreement in the field of culture and information security.NATO expansion caused the situation in Ukraine, Iran said Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Lavrov and Abdollahian discussed during a telephone conversation the prospects for resuming the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program and the situation in Ukraine. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
