Russia says ready to help end Iran nuclear standoff, blasts sanctions

Russia said on Friday it was ready to help resolve the impasse over Iran’s nuclear program after Russian President Vladimir Putin said this month he was receiving messages from both Israel and Iran.

“Moscow remains firmly committed to a political and diplomatic settlement around the Iranian nuclear program and calls on all parties involved to focus their efforts on finding the necessary solutions to avoid a new uncontrolled escalation of tensions,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

“We are ready to assist in this endeavor in any way possible," it added.

Iranian security chief Ali Larijani met Putin on Thursday and announced later he had delivered a message from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Its contents were not disclosed.

Putin said earlier this month that Israel had reached out to enlist Moscow's aid in transmitting to Tehran its desire to avoid further clashes.

“We continue our trusted contacts with Israel and are receiving signals from the Israeli leadership asking us to convey to our Iranian friends that Israel is focused on further settlement and is not interested in any form of confrontation,” Putin said, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would soon meet Putin in the Hungarian capital to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, though a date has yet to be set. It was unclear if Iran would be a topic of discussion.

'Brute force'

The Russian foreign ministry statement was released on the eve of the expiration of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed a 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the JCPOA.

Last month, UN sanctions were reimposed on Iran after France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the so-called snapback mechanism under the resolution, after they accused Tehran of spurning diplomacy and nuclear inspections.

Tehran rejects the powers' standing to invoke the sanctions and denies seeking any nuclear arms.

Russia said earlier this month the restoration of UN sanctions on Iran was "legally null and void and cannot impose any legal obligations on other states."

Moscow added on Friday that following the resolution’s expiry, Iran’s nuclear program should now be treated like that of any other non-nuclear weapon state under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

The ministry said Western states had rejected a joint Russian-Chinese proposal to extend the technical aspects of the deal by six months, showing what it called “an inability to negotiate and a reliance on illegal methods and brute force.”

Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was surprised by Iran's agreement to the so-called UN snapback sanctions mechanism of the JCPOA, describing it as a legal trap for Tehran.

“To be honest, we were surprised. But if our Iranian partners accepted this formulation - which, frankly, was a legal trap - we had no grounds to object,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow on Monday.

The snapback provision allowed any JCPOA signatory, including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran in the event of alleged violations without the possibility of a veto.

Russia seeks to keep Iran at odds with the world, ex-FM Zarif says

Oct 17, 2025, 07:59 GMT+1

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.

Lavrov said earlier this week that the snapback provision — which allows the rapid return of UN sanctions if Iran breaches the agreement — was “largely Zarif’s creation” and a “legal trap” for Tehran.

Zarif said the snapback clause was added during the final stage of nuclear talks as a substitute for a far worse proposal from Russia and France. “Mr Lavrov and the French had suggested a very bad plan on the status of previous UN Security Council resolutions, and we worked hard to replace it,” he said, according to the official IRNA news agency.

He said the final mechanism, later included in the 2015 nuclear deal and endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, was designed to prevent any single country from using its veto to block or extend sanctions.

Hardliners in Iran have long criticized Zarif for accepting the JCPOA’s snapback mechanism, viewing it as a concession that enabled the reimposition of UN sanctions.

Last month, France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the snapback mechanism, restoring UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear activities after they accused Tehran of blocking inspections and rejecting diplomacy. The move came despite opposition from Russia and China.

Long mistrust

In a leaked 2022 interview, Zarif said Russia had tried to prevent the 2015 deal from being finalized, adding that “Russia made every possible effort in the final week to stop the agreement from being concluded.”

Zarif also accused Moscow this week of disclosing sensitive information about Iran’s military and diplomatic activities, including General Qassem Soleimani’s visit to Moscow and details of Iranian drone supplies to Russia for the war in Ukraine. “They were the ones who made those public,” he said.

Lavrov has said Russia has always supported the nuclear deal and the UN Security Council resolution that endorsed it. He said the final decision on the JCPOA “was made directly by Zarif and Kerry” and that other participants, including Russia, were observers.

The United States withdrew from the deal in 2018 during first President Donald Trump’s administration. In response, Iran gradually reduced its compliance and in 2019 began enriching uranium at higher levels.