Russia confirms full commitment to Iran nuclear deal

"The ministers exchanged opinions on the situation concerning the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) under the Iran nuclear program. Lavrov confirmed Russia’s full commitment to the JCPOA and the firm stance on the further all-embracing implementation of this agreement in the form it was approved by the UN Security Council," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The sides also discussed some bilateral issues, the Foreign Ministry added. The talk was held on the initiative of the Iranian side, reported TASS.

Iran and the P5+1 group of international mediators (Russia, the United Kingdom, China, the United States, France and Germany) signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program in July 2015 in Vienna. Under the deal, which started being implemented in January 2016, Iran undertakes to limit its nuclear activities and allow transparent international control of its nuclear program. Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will monitor nuclear facilities in Iran for the next 25 years.

In exchange, UN, US and European Union sanctions were to be gradually removed from Iran. The arms embargo imposed by UN Security Council will be kept in place for five years, ban for supplying ballistic missile technologies to Iran - for eight years. If any points of the agreement are violated by Iran, sanctions against the country will be renewed.

The Iran nuclear deal was numerously criticized by Washington. In his address to the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, US President Donald Trump sharply criticized the Iran nuclear deal, branding it as "one of the worst" in the history of the United States. Trump later said he had made a decision on the US possible withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal but did not elaborate on that.

Moscow has numerously stressed the need for the all the parties concerned to implement the Iran nuclear deal. In particular, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the US withdrawal from the JCPOA would have quite negative consequences.