Iran’s Foreign Minister Heads to Meetings in Russia as Nuclear Deal Stalled

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian will discuss the nuclear deal  between his country and the world powers in a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow on Tuesday, his ministry announced. The meeting in Russia comes as talks on the Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, had reached the final stages, according to negotiators, but were halted on March 5 over a new Russian demand in light of its war on Ukraine. Now the entire endeavor is in danger of blowing up after Russia, one of the world powers that signed the original 2015 deal, is seeking a written guarantee from the United States that sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will not affect its right under a renewed deal to operate in Iran’s civilian nuclear program, and to sell arms to Iran. Iran and the world powers have been negotiating a new deal to reinstate the 2015 nuclear agreement that has fallen apart since the United States unilaterally left the deal in 2018. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called Russia’s demand “irrelevant” to the nuclear deal, while Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadehb said on Monday that “there are some important open issues that need to be decided upon by Washington,” and as soon as those decisions are made, negotiators could “return to Vienna and reach a final agreement.”