Bogdanov: The U.S.’s Iran-Russia Sanctions Bill Is Unlawful

PRESS RELEASE

Bogdanov: The U.S.’s Iran-Russia Sanctions Bill Is Unlawful

Aug. 2, 2017 (EIRNS)—Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Russian Special Presidential Envoy for the Middle East and Africa, Mikhail Bogdanov, who met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Ansari in Moscow yesterday, denounced the recently approved Iran-Russia sanctions bill as unlawful.

"You know our position, these actions are absolutely unlawful, they do not help reach an understanding and the necessary level of trust between us and the Americans,"

Bogdanov said. "This is sad, it affects our bilateral relations," Bogdanov went on to say.

"I think that it does not add optimism regarding the possibility for us to coordinate our approaches towards a whole range of regional issues, including our relations with such an important partner and neighbor as Iran,"

he added.

Ansari was in Moscow for meetings with Bogdanov and other Russian officials on implementation of the cease-fire in Syria.

In Tehran, the Iranian committee in charge of monitoring implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement by which Iran agreed to give up any effort to develop nuclear weapons in return for lifting of UN sanctions, charged yesterday that the U.S. has violated three articles of the agreement by passage of the Iran-Russia sanctions bill, and emphasized the necessity for Iran’s "decisive, appropriate and wise response" to the U.S. government’s policies. The monitoring committee, chaired by Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, further devised a plan in 16 articles on the proper reaction to the U.S. provocative measures, reported the Tasnim News Agency. The committee also endorsed a motion the Parliament had recently passed to counter the "U.S. adventurous and terrorist measures in the region."

Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, told Tasnim, that Iran has already filed a complaint with the international commission on the JCPOA in Vienna. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, who was in Istanbul yesterday for meetings with Turkish officials, said that Iran will respond the U.S. breach of commitments and hostile conduct in connection with the JCPOA through legal and proportionate practical means, including by legal actions in international bodies.