Russia demands guarantees to revive Iran nuclear deal

Sanctions imposed on Moscow over its war in Ukraine have dashed expectations of an early revival of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which limited its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell had predicted an agreement could have been finalised this weekend. US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who has been touring eastern Europe, might have been on hand to mark the occasion.

Instead, Russian's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday: "We want an answer – a very clear answer – we need a guarantee that these sanctions will not in any way touch the regime of trade-economic and investment relations, which is laid down in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" – the nuclear deal known as the JCPOA.

He cited JCPOA terms which empowered Russia and China to help Iran develop its civilian nuclear programmes. Russia, he said, would not back any deal until the guarantee is forthcoming.

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A US state department spokesperson told Reuters, “The new Russia-related sanctions are unrelated to the [JCPOA] and should not have any impact on its potential implementation.”

The official added: “We continue to engage with Russia on a return to full implementation of the JCPOA.”

Russia said these statements did not meet its demand for “clear” written guarantees.

An unnamed Iranian official said Russia's intervention "is not constructive" at this critical time. On Saturday, during talks in Tehran, International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi and Iranian officials agreed on a timeline to explain the presence of uranium particles found at undeclared sites and resolve other issues.

In May 2018, the JCPOA was aborted by the US withdrawal and imposition of 1,500 sanctions on Iran. In 2019 Iran began to breach JCPOA provisions by enriching uranium to higher levels than allowed, stockpiling more than permitted, employing banned enrichment centrifuges, and curtailing UN inspections.

In addition to participating in developing Iran’s civil nuclear programme, Russia is set to assume major roles in implementing Iran’s return to compliance. Under the JCPOA, Iran exported to Russia uranium enriched to low levels above the amount agreed in the deal.

Since 2019 this has become a major undertaking. Iran has enriched to permitted purity a large stockpile of uranium and considerable amounts enriched to prohibited 20 and 60 per cent purity.

Russia will also receive spent fuel from Iran’s Arak heavy water nuclear plant, which has been modified so it does not produce plutonium, which can be used in bomb-making.

Negotiations on the revival of the JCPOA began in April with direct talks among its teams from remaining signatories Iran, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, who held indirect talks with outlier the US.