Russia says will work with Iran to bypass sanctions as US slaps new round on Tehran

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow and Tehran would cooperate to bypass sanctions, as the United States imposes a new round of sanctions against the Islamic Republic in a bitter blow to the prospects of reaching an agreement in Vienna.

The US Treasury Department announced on Wednesday sanctions on an individual and companies linked with him for providing assistance to Iran’s ballistic missile program.

In its statement, the Treasury said the new sanctions target the companies that procured ballistic missile propellant-related materials for a unit of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) that is responsible for the research and development of ballistic missiles.

Earlier in the day, Lavrov had said Russia would work with Iran to take practical steps in an effort to circumvent Western sanctions, the RIA news agency reported.

The remarks come as Russia has become the world’s most-sanctioned country since Moscow launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24.

The United States and its European allies have been spearheading the sanctions against Russia.

Iran’s FM says US must ditch excessive demands to revive 2015 deal

Tehran says Washington has to abandon its excessive demands in order to revive the 2015 Iran deal it abandoned four years ago.

Iran has also been hit by unilateral US sanctions, imposed by Washington after former president Donald Trump declared an unprovoked withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran deal, in May 2018 and targeted the Iranian economy with what he called a “maximum pressure” campaign despite Iran’s full compliance with its nuclear obligations under the JCPOA.

Negotiations were launched between Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties in Vienna last April to bring the US back into compliance with the accord under the Joe Biden administration.

However, Washington has imposed several sanctions against Iran since the talks began, in what has been perceived in Tehran as bad faith measures.

Throughout the course of the Vienna talks, Russia and China have supported Iran’s position on the need for the US to remove all post-JCPOA sanctions and offer assurances that it will not leave the deal again.

Iran FM: Sanctions should not affect Iran’s cooperation with any country, including Russia

The Iranian foreign minister says cooperation between Iran and other countries, including Russia, should not be affected by sanctions.

Also on Wednesday, Lavrov met with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in China on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighbors.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry website, the two foreign ministers focused on the state of affairs surrounding the JCPOA.

The two sides also exchanged views on key regional and international issues, particularly the development of the situation in Ukraine and Afghanistan.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry’s readout of the meeting added that Amir-Abdollahian welcomed the bilateral capacity-building measures in various fields and underlined the need to promote cooperation between Iran and Russia.

The Iranian minister also dismissed the use of unilateral sanctions against countries.

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