Mikhail Ulyanov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to International Organizations in Vienna. File photoVIENNA, Jun 7 Moscow will not support the IAEA resolution on Iran, which is expected to be considered at a meeting of the Agency's Board of Governors this week, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's envoy to international organizations in Vienna, said on his Twitter page .Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett presented documents that refer to Iran's alleged «deception» of the IAEA and Tehran's alleged attempts to hide the state of affairs in its nuclear program. On this issue, as well as on the nature of further cooperation between Iran and the IAEA, a draft resolution is expected to be submitted for consideration.
"It is becoming more and more obvious that the intention of the Western participants in the negotiations in Vienna to adopt a resolution on Iran at the current session of the IAEA Board of Governors is very counterproductive for the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Nuclear Program. — Approx. ed.). Russia will by no means associate itself with such a resolution", Ulyanov wrote.
In 2015, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Russia, the United States, France and Iran concluded a nuclear deal — the JCPOA, which involves the lifting of sanctions in exchange for curbing Tehran's nuclear program. In May 2018, then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and reinstated restrictive measures against Iran. In response, Tehran announced a phased reduction in its obligations under the agreement, abandoning restrictions on nuclear research, centrifuges and the level of uranium enrichment. Negotiations were held in Vienna to renew the JCPOA and lift Washington's sanctions against Iran, on December 27, 2021, the eighth round started. Even during the seventh, in December, the parties reached an agreement on two draft agreements, in which the European side included Tehran's positions. Iranian spokesman Bagheri Kyani said the talks were going well, but US State Department spokesman Ned Price assessed the progress in Vienna as modest and urged Tehran to «take the issue seriously.» With the return of the parties to their capitals at the end of March, negotiations were suspended. The Iranian Foreign Ministry blames the US administration for this.