MNA – In a joint press conference with Sergey Lavrov in Moscow Wed., the Iranian foreign minister said that Russia and Iran are continuing their nuclear cooperation in Bushehr and Fordow nuclear facilities despite US obstacles.

In a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday, Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Iran and Russia have had a very good relationship over the past ten years and the relationship is now developing even more intensively.

Zarif said that in the coming weeks the two countries are going to have an intergovernmental commission session and their presidents are scheduled to meet as well.

“And all events are taking place as part of our comprehensive program between our countries,” Zarif said, adding that he and Lavrov had discussed a number of issues in today’s meeting.

Despite the US activities, Iran and Russia have continued their cooperation in Bushehr nuclear power plant and nuclear cooperation in Fordow are also continuing, Zarif said, adding that he had discussed cooperating on regional issues with Lavrov, including developments in Afghanistan.

He added that the Tehran and Moscow have cooperated in fighting terrorism and believe that finding a peaceful solution is possible to the Syrian problem.

They had also discussed the situation in Northern Africa and Yemen, according to the top Iranian diplomat, stressing that both Iran and Russia consider the US illegal actions against JCPOA as dangerous.

In response to a question “is it possible to maintain the JCPOA under the current circumstances?” Zarif said that both Russia and Iran are committed to the JCPOA and “they have demonstrated their commitments with their actions. As for the other signatories, the minister said that they have stated their commitments but they have not done anything to back it up.

Speaking about the 300 kg of enriched uranium as a limit set by the deal, Zarif said that Iran had to reconsider the commitment by the fact that the US is imposing new sanctions.

We are committed to negotiations process, and this is our decision and we expect all the JCPOA parties to implement all their commitments, the top Iranian diplomat.

He stressed that Iran is not seeking tensions and conflicts and it is the Americans that have come to the region and are seeking tensions.

The top Iranian diplomat stressed that the US presence in Syria is illegitimate, and the US is seeking to partition the countries of the region. The US is supporting separatism, he further noted.

He quoted Donald Trump as saying that it was Iran and Russia that were fighting ISIL. He further described the US presence in the region as destructive and contributing to tensions.

He said that the nations of the region hate the US because of the Americans’ actions and mistakes and the enmity towards the US has nothing to do with Iran. He went on to add that the US created Al-Qaeda and Taliban. This has to do with the policies of the United States, Zarif said, adding the US is seeking to escalate tensions.

We have proven it with our actions over the past years that we are not seeking any tensions, the foreign minister said, adding that “we have been contributing to peaceful solution to the conflicts in the region.”

At the end he underlined that the US needs to back down from its destructive policies.