Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov

The Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has said a further reduction of commitment by Iran in the nuclear deal is almost inevitable, arguing that Iran’s economic interests must be taken into account.

Iran Press/Europe: The Russian deputy foreign minister has argued that a fourth incremental reduction of Iran's commitments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) may be inevitable if Tehran’s economic interests are not taken into account.

Sergei Ryabkov said: "They announced a long time ago that if there is no progress vis-a-vis the other parties to the JCPOA honoring their commitments and also ensuring Iran’s legal economic interests, they will take incremental steps reducing their commitments every two months," Tass reported.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on 21 October that the country will take the 4th step towards reducing its commitments to the nuclear deal if the EU fails to comply with its commitments.

"I assume that if the situation continues to stall and if there is no improvement regarding Iran’s trade-economic situation, the so-called fourth stage may become inevitable," he noted.

Ryabkov added that this issue was not discussed during the talks with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, held in Moscow on Thursday.

"We have not discussed this specifically, we talked about what needs to be done to improve the stability of JCPOA," Ryabkov said. 101/211/207

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