Russia to Do Everything It Can to Ease Tensions between Iran, US: Envoy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russia’s ambassador to Iran expressed worries over “escalation of rhetoric” between Washington and Tehran, saying his country will spare no efforts to help ease tensions between Iran and the US.
“Of course, we are concerned over escalation of rhetoric between the United States and Iran. I think that Russia will do everything in its power to lower the degree of tensions. As far as Iran’s need for any mediating efforts is concerned, this question should be directed to our Iranian partners. We have not received any such requests yet,” Levan Dzhagaryan said, Sputnik reported.
The new US administration has adopted a more belligerent stance on Iran than the previous one.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 27 banning nationals temporarily from seven Muslim-majority nations, including Iran, from entering the US.
On Friday, the administration of US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions against 25 individuals and entities based in Iran, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and China for allegedly supporting Tehran’s ballistic missile program after its latest medium-range ballistic missile test on January 29.
The United States considers the test as a violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a nuclear deal Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) reached in July 2015 and implemented in January 2016.
The 15-memebr United Nations Security Council passed a resolution in 2015 to endorse the accord.
Resolution 2231 calls upon Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”
Iranian authorities say the country’s missile tests do not violate the JCPOA or the UN resolution.
Iran maintains that none of its missiles have been designed to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads, because nuclear weapons have basically no place in the Islamic Republic’s defense doctrine.
