American researcher:

Ukraine crisis could sideline Iran nuclear deal

Lavrov (left) and Abdullahian... conflicting interests.

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The Iranian-American researcher, Ray Takeh, believes that Iran, despite officially supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the new complications in the talks to revive the Iranian nuclear agreement indicate that there are differences between Moscow and Tehran.

The talks stopped, for no apparent reason.

Senior negotiators explained that the main obstacle is Russia's demand that its trade with Iran not be subject to the new sanctions imposed on Moscow, due to its invasion of Ukraine.

But Iranian officials assert that the reason for the delay in the talks is the unwillingness of the United States to lift sanctions on Tehran.

It is possible that Russia is the main reason for the delay, and that Iranian officials are not willing to publicly blame it, said former State Department official and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Ray Takeh.

If this is the truth, it is likely that Iran will eventually ignore Russia's demands and reach an agreement with other parties to ease sanctions and obtain much-needed revenue.

Takeh added that it was not likely that Russian demands would prevent an agreement.

According to the first 2015 agreement, Russia was receiving excess enriched uranium from Iran and providing nuclear fuel for the Bushehr plant.

This role was to be revived in any new nuclear deal.

Indeed, the Russian invasion of Ukraine exposed the divisions within Iran.

The Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, considered the United States to be responsible for the Russian aggression.

In a speech on television, he said, "The United States, by interfering in Ukrainian affairs, creating colorful revolutions, overthrowing a government and installing others in power, pushed Ukraine to this situation."

And the right-wing Iranian newspaper Kayhan wrote, recently, that "Ukraine jumped into a well because of its confidence in the damaged American rope."

There are more moderate Iranian political figures, Takeh says, who have been sidelined by the grip of conservatives.

After the Russian invasion, former parliamentarian Ali Motahari wrote on Twitter that "Iran should show its independence by condemning Russia's attack on Ukraine."

Iranian reformists believe that Iran does not achieve much from weaving conspiracy theories in order to approve the Russian invasion.

As for the Russian-Iranian relations, Takeh believes that it has always been an alliance of interests, and was not based on common values.

The two countries cooperated in the war in Syria, but throughout the nuclear negotiations, Russia has been supporting Western sanctions on Iran and various Security Council resolutions that prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.

The Russians were telling the Iranians that they should not rely on Russia's veto power in the Security Council, and instead agree with the countries leading the talks.

• Iranian-Russian relations have always been an alliance of interests, not based on common values.

The two countries cooperated in the war in Syria, but throughout the negotiations, Russia supported sanctions on Iran and Security Council resolutions that prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.

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