Lift Sanctions

Russia is ready to consider the question of lifting the existing sanctions against Iran. This possibility is not excluded by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, provided Iran opens its nuclear program to the IAEA’s inspectors. Tehran has already agreed to let the inspectors into its secret military location.

The Russian Deputy of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Ryabkov, announced on Tuesday that Moscow is ready to discuss with the “six” the possibility of lifting one-way sanctions against Iran in the case that it agrees to cooperate fully with the IAEA.

He actually referred to the Russian President’s Vladimir Putin recent pre-election speech regarding foreign policy, where Prime Minister expressed at the moment the idea that the international community could have granted Iran the right to accomplish uranium enrichment, provided that the nuclear program is under the IAEA’s all-inclusive guarantees.

“Thus, there is a factor that allows coming to an agreement, a compromise that can make a deal go through. However, there is a third component there. If this agreement happens, then the international community could lift the sanctions, including the one-sided ones. I think that this idea is extremely productive, and we would like it to become the subject of discussion during the next round of negotiations,” said the deputy.

As a reminder, the last time the IAEA’s inspectors were in the Islamic Republic was at the end of February, and they returned very disappointed. During the first and second rounds of negotiations, the delegation asked to be allowed access to the military location in Parchin. Iran denied the visit, as the agency announced following the visit.

Tehran explained the denial, saying that Parchin is not a nuclear object. “Parchin is not a nuclear but a military object. Once we allowed the inspectors to visit it, nothing nuclear was found there. It is not excluded that the IAEA is inspecting not the nuclear potential of our country, but military,” said Iranian Ambassador Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi.

However, if one believes the IAEA’s report announced in November last year, Iran builds its supposed nuclear weapons and tests the bomb’s elements precisely in Parchin.

However, Tehran quickly changed its position. Iran’s official representatives to the IAEA announced on Tuesday that they are ready to consider this visit.

The announcement also contains a call for the participants of the IAEA board of governors’ session taking place in Vienna “not to take any steps that can weaken Iran’s cooperation with the agency.”

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that Iran was conducting final negotiations to choose the place and time of its meeting with the “six.” “Iran has always showed its readiness to tackle this question through the dialogue. We are now talking about choosing the final date and place to hold negotiations,” said Hossein Amir-Abdollahiyan, the Iranian deputy Foreign Minister for Arabian Middle East and African affairs.

He also confirmed that his country is keeping the implementation of its peaceful nuclear program and “will never let Barack Obama make decisions about it.” “Netanyahu’s comments seem more like screams of panic. The actions that they are planning to take may have very dangerous consequences,” he said, referring to the recent talks between Tel-Aviv and Washington.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel had the right to defend itself from the Iranian nuclear threat. According to his words, his country was “waiting patiently” for diplomacy and economic sanctions to work, though any patience has limits.

Netanyahu had talked with President Barack Obama a few hours before that. The U.S. president reassured again that the U.S. can resort to force in order to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, if needed. According to Obama, they should focus right now on the diplomatic pressure and sanctions, since a military operation can cause a large-scale conflict in the region with unpredictable consequences for both Israel and the U.S.

According to the U.S. administration, Netanyahu confirmed that his government has not yet made a decision to attack Iran, although he confirmed at the same time that Israel reserves the right to use force.

Commenting on other issues on the foreign policy agenda, Ryabkov noted that Russia was concerned about the lack of political will from the West on Syria. “We think that any problems can be solved with the political will of those who have influence in the country, in particular of those who have influence on the opposition…. Don’t say it’s too late. Do it, so it won’t be too late.” Russia not only has influence in Damascus, but also the key international players. “The Arab League, the West do not influence the opposition enough, and probably not in the right direction.”

The diplomat also said that it is very unlikely that Russia will participate in the NATO summit in Chicago in May, if Moscow and Washington do not agree on the missile defense issue. “Russia has an invitation for the summit, so now it all depends on the agenda. We have common ground, but with no discussion on the missile defense, it is very unlikely that it will be enough to hold the summit.”