On April 13, 2021, Iranian President Hassan ROUHANI had a meeting in Teheran with the Russian Foreign Minister Serghei LAVROV.

Iranian president appreciates Moscow’s support at the talks on Iran’s nuclear program: “Iran appreciates Moscow’s support for the negotiation process on the nuclear deal and aspiration to preserve and revive the JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action)” he said. “Today, the US and the whole world have arrived at the conclusion that maximum pressure on Tehran has failed, and the only way for Washington is to return to the nuclear deal,” ROUHANI said.

“In actual fact, we want the situation with commitments and the agreement to return to what it was in 2015” he added.

President Hassan ROUHANI said during the meeting with LAVROV that Iran wishes to expand regional cooperation with Russia on Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen in order to help establish stability and combat US interventions.

Iran and Russia said ROUHANI, should also increase bilateral economic activity, especially using private companies, in the oil, energy, transportation, and nuclear sectors.

He called on Russia to accelerate the process of delivering more doses of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19. Iran received more than half a million doses of the vaccine from Russia.

JCPOA was the main topic of talks as multilateral talks in Vienna last week. Vienna hosted the first face-to-face meeting of the Joint Commission of Iran and five other JCPOA members: Russia, China, Germany, the UK, and France. US Special Envoy for Iran Robert MALLEY was in the Austrian capital too.

The objective of the meeting was to identify tasks for further work of two expert groups: on lifting US sanctions against Iran and on issues related to Tehran’s nuclear obligations.

Sergei LAVROV on Tuesday said that Moscow expected the Iranian nuclear deal to be saved and condemned EU sanctions against Iran, saying they could undermine ongoing nuclear talks.

“I hope our European colleagues understand that such actions are unacceptable and will take measures not to allow the talks to be derailed,” LAVROV said.

Mohammad Javad ZARIF, the Iranian foreign minister said Iran has “no problem with returning to implementing JCPOA commitments.” He warned that “acts of sabotage” and sanctions will give Washington no added advantage in talks on reviving the floundering 2015 nuclear deal, which the US quit in 2018.

“But the Americans should know that neither sanctions nor acts of sabotage will give them negotiation tools and these acts will only make the situation more difficult for them,” the Iranian diplomat said during a joint press conference with LAVROV.

Earlier on Tuesday, LAVROV signed a “cultural cooperation agreement” with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad ZARIF, the specific details of which have yet to be disclosed.

On a January trip to Russian Federation, ZARIF had also signed an “information security” cooperation agreement with Russia that the Iranian foreign ministry called a turning point in joint cybersecurity work.

This article was edited using the data from the Aljazeera.com, En.irna.ir, Iranintl.com, Dw.com and Tass.com