Germany, Britain and France warned Saturday that negotiations with Iran on reviving the nuclear deal could collapse due to Russian demands, which would "deprive the Iranian people of the lifting of sanctions, and the international community of the required guarantees related to Iran's nuclear program."

And urged the three European countries involved in the Iranian nuclear deal not to "exploit" the talks aimed at reviving it, after they were suspended after Russian demands from Washington over the Ukraine crisis.

The three European countries said in a joint statement that Russia's demands to guarantee its trade with Iran threaten the collapse of an almost completed nuclear agreement, according to the European Euronews network.

The statement added that no one should seek to exploit the negotiations of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the nuclear deal) to obtain guarantees separate from the plan, adding that this threatens the collapse of the agreement.

According to the joint statement, the agreement on the table must be concluded quickly, bearing in mind that the United States insists on rejecting Russia's demands.

After the negotiating parties confirmed the approach of an understanding to revive the agreement, additional difficulties emerged this week.

Iranian officials talked about Washington making “new requests” and causing it to “complicate” the negotiation, while the Westerners expressed their concern about the delay in achieving the understanding as a result of Moscow’s request for written American guarantees that the Western sanctions imposed on it against the background of its invasion of Ukraine would not affect its cooperation with Tehran in the conflict. economic and military fields.

Washington considered that these demands were "out of context" in the case, as there was no link between sanctions and cooperation between Moscow and Tehran within the framework of the nuclear agreement.


On Friday, the United States urged Iran and Russia to take the necessary "decisions" to quickly reach an understanding on the agreement, considering that the ball is now in their court to overcome the impasse, according to statements by its Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price.

For his part, a European diplomat said that if Moscow did not show flexibility on its demands, "other options" were possible, without providing additional details.

He stressed not to allow "Russia to hold the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action hostage."

Tehran has close relations with Moscow politically, economically and militarily, and Russia has played a key role in negotiating the agreement and its implementation steps, such as transferring enriched uranium from Iran to its territory.

The negotiations, sponsored by the European Union, aim for the United States to return to the agreement that the administration of former President Donald Trump withdrew from in May 2018, and then re-imposed severe sanctions on Iran.

And the 2015 agreement signed by Iran with the United States, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany, and it imposed restrictions on Tehran's program to prevent the production of nuclear weapons, in return for the lifting of international sanctions.

Iran: Washington failed to prevent our oil exports

On the other hand, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Oji stressed in statements published today, Saturday, that Washington's attempts to confiscate oil shipments and tankers belonging to the Islamic Republic did not prevent Tehran from exporting its oil, which is subject to US sanctions.

The minister's statements came in an interview with the government newspaper "Iran", which was published after US judicial documents revealed that Washington had confiscated during the past weeks the cargo of two oil tankers suspected of transporting quantities of Iranian crude.

"The enemy has tried more than once to reduce Iran's oil exports and confiscate the country's ships" during the past months, Oji said.

"When the enemy saw that it was unable and unable to stop our exports and contracts (for export), its focus shifted to our ships" that transport this oil, he added.

Judicial documents showed that the US authorities confiscated, weeks ago, about 770,000 barrels of oil that was launched in 2020 from Iran and was subjected to "transfers and fraud to conceal its source."

The minister did not address this issue, but he told the newspaper, "You have heard about one or two similar cases (of oil confiscation), but other attempts took place and, fortunately, were thwarted by our armed forces."

The minister did not provide details about these attempts, but he gave one example, which is the Revolutionary Guards' announcement of thwarting an American attempt to confiscate Iranian oil in the Sea of ​​Oman in late October 2021.

The Guard said on that day that American naval forces had confiscated a tanker carrying Iranian oil and transferred its cargo to another tanker, before its navy confiscated the second tanker and recovered the cargo.

Washington denied this story, stressing that it did not confiscate any ship, but rather that the Iranian navy had done so "illegally" in the Sea of ​​Oman.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs @MBA_AlThani_ makes a phone call with the Iranian Foreign Minister#Qatar_Foreign Affairs pic.twitter.com/fkXtBkjgQl

— Qatari Foreign Ministry (@MofaQatar_AR) March 12, 2022

Contact between the foreign ministers of Qatar and Iran

On the other hand, Qatar News Agency said that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani made a phone call today, Saturday, with his Iranian counterpart, Hussein Amir Abdullahian.

She added that during the call, they reviewed bilateral relations between the two countries, and discussed the latest regional developments and the latest developments in the nuclear agreement talks, in addition to exchanging views on issues of common interest.