Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov . File photoMOSCOW, May 19. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian discussed the prospects resumption of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program and the situation in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry reports. The telephone conversation took place at the initiative of the Iranian side.The UN Secretary General and the Iranian Foreign Minister discussed the negotiations on the JCPOA «The main attention was paid to key issues of bilateral relations, as well as the prospects for the resumption of the full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program,» the foreign ministry said. In addition, according to the ministry, » an interested exchange of views took place on a number of topical regional and international issues, including the situation in Ukraine.» Iran. In May 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and reinstated sanctions against Tehran. In response, Iran announced a phased reduction in its obligations under the agreement, abandoning restrictions on nuclear research, centrifuges and the level of uranium enrichment. Negotiations are underway in Vienna to renew the JCPOA and lift Washington's sanctions against Tehran, on December 27, 2021, the eighth round started. Even during the seventh round, in December, the parties reached an agreement on two draft agreements, in which the European side included the positions of Iran. Iranian spokesman Bagheri Kyani said the talks were going well, but US State Department spokesman Ned Price assessed the progress in Vienna as «modest», urging Tehran to take the issue seriously. With the return of the parties to their capitals at the end of March, the negotiations were suspended. The Iranian Foreign Ministry blames the US administration for this.
