Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that the delay in the Vienna talks is in the interest of his country, while his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, denied that his country had put obstacles in the way of returning to the nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers.
At a joint press conference with Lavrov in Moscow, Abdollahian explained that "the delay in the Vienna talks creates grounds for preserving our interests."
The Iranian minister said there was no connection between the current events in Ukraine and the Vienna talks on reviving the nuclear deal.
For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow supports the resumption of the Iranian nuclear deal as soon as possible and is waiting for Washington to lift sanctions on Tehran.
"It is not true that Russia is obstructing the Vienna negotiations on the Iranian nuclear issue," he added.
Russia had earlier demanded to ensure the continuation of its trade with Iran and not be affected by the sanctions imposed by Western countries on Moscow.
Moscow considered that Western sanctions against it had become a stumbling block to reviving the nuclear agreement signed between Iran and international powers in 2015.
Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia had obtained written US guarantees that the sanctions currently imposed on Russia would not affect nuclear cooperation with Iran, including the Bushehr facility.
The talks between the foreign ministers of the two countries dealt with the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Iran and Russia.
"We discussed the sanctions imposed on our country, and the events of Ukraine have no effect on our relations with Moscow," the Iranian foreign minister said.
Lavrov revealed his country's intention to sign an agreement with Iran that defines the principles of our cooperation in the international arena.
"I agreed with my Iranian counterpart to bypass the impact of Western sanctions and double standards," he added.