The visit comes at an interesting time for Tehran, given its considerable isolation in the Middle East and uncertain position on the world stage after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to renege on an international nuclear agreement with Iran.
The 2015 nuclear pact was reached between Iran and the U.S., U.K., Russia, China, France and Germany and heralded a rapprochement between the Islamic Republic and the West; it was a landmark achievement of former U.S. President Barack Obama. Iran agreed to limit its nuclear energy program in return for the lifting of international sanctions that had crippled its economy.
Trump has since accused Iran of violating the terms of the agreement and said it does not serve U.S. national interests and in October threatened to disavow the deal.
Still, Russia appears ready to defend Iran, a country that it has links to beyond the nuclear deal, having allied with Tehran in terms of military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Earlier in October, Putin said he would support Iran’s nuclear deal even if the U.S. withdrew its support, saying that it was not for Russia to decide whether Iran was complying with the deal but for the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Ryabkov told reporters Wednesday that the responsibility for any possible collapse of the deal would lie entirely with the U.S., Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
“The situation is deteriorating, as the sentiment in the U.S. Congress is highly anti-Iranian,” he said, according to a TASS report Wednesday.
“No changes, amendments or corrections to the current agreement are possible, as it is a very well-measured and delicate balance of interests and compromises,” Ryabkov said. “If something needs to be discussed additionally, it should be a totally different issue for discussion… I see no intention to conduct such discussions with the Iranian side.”
