The total removal of sanctions against Iran will benefit Russia’s interests and economy, as well as bring stability to the region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. He noted there is no UN ban on oil and gas trade with Tehran
“The lifting of anti-Iranian sanctions – both those imposed
by the United Nations Security Council and all unilateral
restrictions – meets our national interests,” Lavrov said in
an exclusive interview with Argumenty i Fakty (Arguments
Facts) weekly. “We are confident that de-escalation of
tension around Iran will improve bilateral trade-and-economic
ties and, correspondingly, will be beneficial for Russia.”
Lavrov in particular stressed that there are no UN Security
Council bans on exports of Iranian oil and gas.
“Tehran has been selling hydrocarbons to states that are not
afraid of unlawful Western restrictions and to those who has been
able to reach an ‘amicable agreement’ with Washington,” he
added.
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Moscow is confident that Iran’s influence in the regional affairs
would help stabilize the nearby volatile regions, Lavrov noted.
“Tehran’s fully-fledged participation in regional affairs will
serve the tasks of ensuring security in the Gulf and neighboring
regions.
“Stabilization in the vast region of the Middle East and North
Africa will bring countries of that region back to normal life,
will remove obstacles on the path of resuming full-scale foreign
economic exchanges, which is in the interests of expanding our
mutually-beneficial trade-and-economic cooperation with them and
bigger presence of Russian companies on those promising
markets,” he explained.
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Lavrov spoke in support of the “reasonable balance of
interests and joint actions to solve common problems,”
adding that such an approach should be used in the energy sector
as well. “In the current conditions, energy producers and
consumers should pool efforts to flatten out excessive volatility
of prices and ensure normal functioning of markets.”
He stressed that Russia has been putting a great deal of
diplomatic effort into ironing out the political framework
agreement for the nuclear deal with Iran in Lausanne,
Switzerland.
“Russian diplomacy made a significant contribution to the
achievement of the Lausanne framework agreement on the settlement
of issues related to the Iranian nuclear program.”
Iran and the P5+1 powers (China, France, Russia, UK, US and
Germany) have agreed on a preliminary deal in the Swiss city of
Lausanne earlier in April. Under the framework, Iran will not
pursue new enrichment facilities, or heavy water reactors, for 15
years. It will also downsize its stockpile of enriched uranium
and follow enhanced transparency procedures.
Meanwhile, the US and the EU pledged to begin lifting all the
nuclear-related sanctions against Iran.
Another round of talks is scheduled to begin on April 24. It aims
to turn the framework agreement into a final deal. One of the key
issues on the table will be the timetable for the lifting of
sanctions. A final agreement must be reached by June 30, 2015.
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