Russia said yesterday the possibility of lifting sanctions on Iran had emerged thanks to international talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme and urged all countries involved to show political will to reach a deal.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Friday to discuss the negotiations with six world powers on a decade-old stand-off over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions.
The talks between Iran and the United States, France, Russia, Britain, China and Germany failed to yield a deal by a July deadline and were extended by four months in view of remaining wide differences in negotiating positions.
They are expected to resume in September, with the aim of reaching a settlement by Nov. 24 that would scale back Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for a lifting of sanctions that are severely hurting its oil-dependent economy.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it still hoped a deal was possible no later than November. “Despite the difficult course of the negotiating process, a possibility is emerging to satisfy in full all integral rights of Iran as a member state of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, including the right to enrich uranium and lifting the sanctions regime,” it said.
“We presume all parties in the talks will show political will to reach a final, mutually acceptable agreement that would allow to fully restore the international community’s trust in the exclusively peaceful character of Iran’s nuclear programme.”
In Paris, French President Francois Hollande said: “Iran must have the courage to take measures that show in a verifiable and uncontested way that it renounces it’s military nuclear capacity.”
Iran denies Western accusations that it has been seeking the capability to assemble nuclear weapons.