Pompeo’s demands of Iran 'nonsense': Russia envoy to IAEA
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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the Heritage Foundation May 21, 2018 in Washington, DC
Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mikhail Ulyanov says Washington’s recently-outlined demands of Iran are nonsensical because they left no chance for clinching any new deal.
"That’s nonsense, nothing can be agreed on this basis," Ulyanov said from Vienna in a video conference on Tuesday.
He pointed to Washington's call for Iran to "stop enrichment and never pursue plutonium reprocessing" and said, "The United States is unable to understand that Iran has sovereign rights, including the right to civilian nuclear power."
The Russian envoy to the IAEA emphasized that the US walked away from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), due to the current US administration’s utter incompetence and misunderstanding of the agreement.
Following a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the UN nuclear agency's Director General Yukiya Amano in Sochi on May 14, Ulyanov reaffirmed Moscow's readiness to remain committed to the nuclear agreement.
"As far as Iran is concerned, the president reaffirmed Russia’s readiness to continue fulfilling the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action regardless of the United States’ decision to withdraw from it," Ulyanov said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that Washington will increase the financial pressure on Iran by imposing the "strongest sanctions in history" on the Islamic Republic if Tehran refuses to change the course of its foreign and domestic policy.
Speaking weeks after the United States' pullout from the nuclear agreement Iran signed with major powers in 2015, he laid out 12 tough conditions for any "new deal" with Tehran. The conditions included withdrawal of Iran's military advisors from Syria, who have been helping the country's legitimate government in its anti-terror fight against terrorist outfits, which have been mostly aided and abetted by the US and its Western and regional allies.
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