Zarif Lashes out at Lavrov, Says Russia's Sabotaging Iranian Affairs
Russia has long sought to prevent Iran from having normal relations with the world, former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, days after the Russian foreign minister faulted him for accepting a sanctions clause in a 2015 nuclear deal. Speaking at a conference in Tehran, Zarif said Russia has two “red lines” in its policy toward Iran — that the country should never enjoy normal relations with the world and should also not enter direct confrontation. “That is why Russia supported the Geneva interim agreement. It kept the wound open but prevented conflict,” he said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Zarif has accused Lavrov of distorting history and evading responsibility. Zarif quotes a conversation with John Kerry, which encapsulates Moscow’s duplicity — posing as Iran’s ally while protecting its own interests. Zarif argues that Russia, not Iran, engineered the most restrictive aspects of the JCPOA and is trying to rewrite the story a decade later.
Other Iranian reformists and IRGC commanders (such as Behrouz Esbati) have blamed Russia for allowing Israel to defeat Iran in Syria. The close cooperation in Syria between Russia and Israel has been confirmed by Israeli-Iranian journalist Menashe Amir:
Iranian media like Khabar have wondered whether Russia's mediation between Iran and Israel mostly serves Russia's own interest. Nematollah Izadi, Iran's former Ambassador to Russia, has accused Lavrov of meddling in Iranian affairs to protect Russia's interests and to sabotage Iran's internal & external normalization and stabilization affairs because "They benefit from sanctions on Iran. We should not allow Russians to sabotage normalization of our ties with Europeans and the world."
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