Iran and Russia oppose to "unilateral approaches" used to solve global crises

The balance of power in the Middle East has been on the agenda of Moscow and Tehran for centuries.  The first diplomatic contacts between the two nations were established in the 16th century - with Russia acting as an intermediary between the trade between Persia and Great Britain - and have been developing over the years. The link between Russia and Iran has depended, in the current century, on several factors, being their relationship with the United States one of them. In this context, Moscow has strongly opposed possible attempts to manipulate the UN Security Council through the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCP), an international agreement on Iran's nuclear plan established in Vienna in 2015 between the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the Islamic Republic and the European Union. This was announced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before the start of negotiations with his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif on Tuesday.

"We are determined to counter any attempt to use the situation to manipulate the UN Security Council and promote the anti-Iranian agenda. We will certainly raise the issue in all multilateral international formats," said Lavrov before the start of this meeting. "We have discussed in detail the situation around the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan regarding the Iranian nuclear program, pointing out the importance of keeping this agreement, which acts as an important factor in maintaining international security, despite the destructive position of the United States," said the Russian Foreign Minister at the end of this meeting, according to statements collected by the Russian media Sputnik. 

Moscow and Tehran signed a declaration on Tuesday on strengthening the role of international law. For Lavrov, "this is a document inked due to the constant attempts of several countries to promote an imperfect concept of world order based on rules, which undermine the fundamental principles of justice and mutual respect taken by our predecessors as the basis of international law and the United Nations Charter," according to information issued by the Iranian news agency Mehr. 

The conflict in Syria is another matter of concern for the diplomatic leaders of both countries. For this reason, Lavrov has announced that Ankara, Moscow and Tehran have agreed to hold a joint video conference, followed by a face-to-face meeting to discuss a new agreement on Syria. "We have supported the proposal to hold a video conference before a face-to-face meeting between the three leaders. We will agree on the terms of this video conference very quickly and announce them soon," he said. In recent years, military cooperation between Iran and Russia has intensified as a result of this conflict, with both powers supporting Bashar Al-Assad. 

Islamic Republic Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has used the social networking site Twitter to state that "Iran and Russia are determined to deal with the unilateral and illegal approaches used to solve global crises" and has thanked his Russian counterpart for their efforts to prevent the collapse of the Iranian nuclear pact. "I would like to thank you personally for your efforts, your letters to the UN Secretary General, (...) so that the US plan and, unfortunately, your cooperation with the remaining PAIC countries does not lead to a total catastrophe," he said after assuring that "Tehran will not allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to become an instrument to destroy the Iranian nuclear pact," Sputnik reported. 

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, urged Iran on Monday to cooperate "immediately and completely" with its disarmament inspectors to clarify some doubts about the Islamic Republic's nuclear past. "For four months Iran has denied access (to IAEA inspectors) to two locations, and for nearly a year it has not held substantive discussions to clarify our questions about possible undeclared nuclear materials and activities," Grossi warned during his opening remarks at the summer meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors. International monitoring is one of the key points of the agreement signed between 2015, following which Tehran guaranteed the peaceful nature of its atomic industry in exchange for avoiding much of the international sanctions. 

In response, Zarif stressed that Tehran has been transparent in its dealings with this body and hinted that "it would be a real shame if the IAEA and the UN continued to move towards the destruction of the nuclear agreement", before threatening to take action in the event that this institution "acts unreasonably".  This meeting came several hours after the governments of Turkey and Iran defended stronger bilateral cooperation despite their political differences; a meeting in which Zarif announced that Iranian gas exports to the Eurasian nation would resume at the end of June.

In addition, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy held a telephone conversation with the Russian Foreign Minister to discuss bilateral relations between the EU and Moscow. Both have agreed that the Iranian nuclear deal remains their "top priority", according to a statement by EU Foreign Affairs spokesman Peter Stano. 

Over the past two decades, the dynamics of Russian-Iranian relations have been characterized by instability, as periods of political rapprochement between the two governments have been repeatedly interrupted by stages of distancing. This meeting between the foreign ministers of both countries has opened a path towards cooperation and dialogue between two of the most important actors in the region.