Former Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Russia of deliberately working to isolate Iran from the international community, just days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blamed him for including a controversial sanctions clause in the 2015 nuclear deal.
Speaking at a gathering in Tehran, Zarif asserted that Moscow has long maintained two strict “red lines” in its dealings with Tehran — that Iran should never be allowed to have normal diplomatic or economic ties with the world, and that it should avoid direct military confrontation. “That is why Russia supported the Geneva interim agreement. It kept the wound open but prevented conflict,” he said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Lavrov earlier this week attributed the creation of the “snapback” mechanism — which enables the swift reinstatement of UN sanctions if Iran violates the nuclear accord — to Zarif, calling it “largely Zarif’s creation” and describing it as a “legal trap” for Tehran.
In response, Zarif defended the inclusion of the clause, saying it was added at the last stage of negotiations to replace a far worse proposal initially presented by Moscow and Paris. “Mr Lavrov and the French had suggested a very bad plan on the status of previous UN Security Council resolutions, and we worked hard to replace it,” he explained, according to IRNA.
Zarif said the mechanism later adopted into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231 was designed to ensure no single member state could use its veto to block or prolong sanctions.
For years, Iranian hardliners have lambasted Zarif for agreeing to the snapback mechanism, claiming it left the country vulnerable to renewed UN sanctions.
Last month, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom invoked that same snapback provision, reinstating sanctions on Iran for obstructing inspections and rejecting negotiations. The decision was made over the objections of Russia and China.
In a 2022 leaked audio recording, Zarif alleged that Moscow actively tried to derail the 2015 nuclear agreement, saying that “Russia made every possible effort in the final week to stop the agreement from being concluded.”
Zarif went further this week, accusing Russia of revealing classified details about Iran’s military and diplomatic affairs — including General Qassem Soleimani’s trip to Moscow and information about Iranian drone shipments used by Russia in the war against Ukraine. “They were the ones who made those public,” he said.
Lavrov, however, has maintained that Russia fully backed both the JCPOA and the UN resolution that approved it. He noted that the final call on the deal “was made directly by Zarif and Kerry,” while Russia and other nations participated only as observers.
The United States withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 under President Donald Trump. Following that decision, Iran steadily rolled back its compliance and, by 2019, had resumed enriching uranium to higher levels than permitted under the agreement.
{Matzav.com}
