Russia prepared for ministerial meeting on Iran deal as long as tangible agreements prepared beforehand - Lavrov
HIGH TATRA MOUNTAINS, Slovakia. July 9 (Interfax) - Russia supports the idea of convening a ministerial meeting of the Joint Commission on the Iran nuclear deal, but it should be preceded by the formulation of some tangible agreements beforehand, which has not happened so far, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"The Joint Commission met recently at the level of political directors, and it's been proposed for it to meet at the ministerial level," Lavrov told journalists in Slovakia.
"We will be prepared for this as long as it's understood that the parties should approach such a meeting with tangible agreements," he said.
"No such agreements are visible at the moment," he said.
Russia "doesn't want to see the situation surrounding Iran and the region as a whole heating up," Lavrov said.
Russia does not see a way to deal with the current situation, "except by insisting on returning to the basic principles of the JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program], on all JCPOA signatories' returning to the implementation of their obligations," he said.
"Our American partners and our other partners, particularly the Israeli ones, do have some questions for Iran concerning its missile program and concerning Iran's policy in the region. For God's sake! All of this can be discussed, and by the way, when the JCPOA was being developed, we insisted on including in it a clause on the need for a dialogue on regional problems," Lavrov said.
"Don't break what took so much effort to make and what has made a colossal contribution to strengthening the nonproliferation regime. This needs to be preserved, and any other issues that might emerge should be discussed jointly, collectively, based on mutual respect," he said.