Lavrov pointed to Europe's traditional accusation of Iran in breaking the JCPOA.
Representatives of European states, at the moment when the political agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), broke down, began to blame Iran for this instead of restoring the document that had lost its validity. This was announced on February 19 by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an interview with Al-Arabiya TV channel.
"The Europeans, according to their tradition, instead of seeking to restore the integrity of this most important document (JCPOA. — Ed.), they began to blame Iran for everything and continue to do so now. It is no coincidence that Iranian officials refuse to talk to the Europeans, preferring to have a direct dialogue with the United States," he said.
The Russian Foreign Minister clarified that representatives of the Iranian side also do not want to discuss the agreement with Western countries due to the fact that all restrictions imposed on Iran with the adoption of the JCPOA expired in November last year. Despite this, the Europeans, using, as Lavrov stressed, "fraudulent methods", are trying to position the current situation from the position of alleged violation by Tehran of the agreements.
"(Representatives of Europe. — Ed.) leave aside that the program (SPVD. — Ed.) The United States collapsed nine years ago. Leaving this aside, they are trying to pretend that the sanctions against Iran, which were imposed before this settlement program, have resumed their effect," the Foreign Minister added.
He added that risks and political tensions in the region began to arise after the withdrawal of the American side from the agreement, which, in turn, teamed up with Israel to launch attacks on Iran's nuclear infrastructure facilities under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the summer of 2025. As a result of such actions, as Lavrov noted, there were "bad" consequences in the form of the risk of a nuclear incident.
"Now, according to our Iranian colleagues, the situation is more or less normal. But the attacks on nuclear facilities forced the Iranians to think about the physical protection of nuclear materials, which, I repeat, are under the control of the Agency (IAEA. — Ed.) and which could not be "touched". <...> The Agency's control, especially in recent years, after the signing of the JCPOA, was unprecedented. Iran has never been convicted of violating the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. — Ed.) or its safeguards agreement with the IAEA," he concluded.
On the same day, Lavrov said that Iran has the right to peaceful uranium enrichment, despite the complete rejection of such activities proposed to it in the framework of the Geneva talks. According to the Russian Foreign Minister, Tehran, which stated upon the termination of the JCPOA that it was no longer bound by restrictions, expressed its readiness to reduce its enrichment activities. Representatives of the republic are ready to reduce their activities to 3-6%, a universally recognized safe level, and generate energy only for non—energy, medical purposes.
At the same time, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that threats and blackmail were not conducive to negotiations on the Iranian issue. She clarified that Moscow expresses its conviction that the parties will reach a consensus through an equal and respectful dialogue. Zakharova added that Russia can only hope that as a result of the negotiations on Iran, the region will not be drawn into a new military adventure.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, commenting on the Geneva talks with the American side, called them constructive. According to him, the parties have reached an understanding on a number of common issues and are closer to discussing the essence of a possible agreement. The negotiations concerned the Iranian nuclear dossier.
All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.
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