Iran-Russia relations based on trust, including on uranium removal issue — Iranian MFA

TEHRAN, October 12. /TASS/. Relations between Russia and Iran are based on mutual trust, including with regard to resolving the situation surrounding the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump that the proposal to transfer enriched Iranian uranium to Russian territory remained on the table. He also reminded the US leader that diplomatic options for resolving the conflict between the United States and Iran had not been exhausted.

"Cooperation between Iran and Russia in various fields, including the nuclear issue, has a long history. <…> Both countries continue to express their interest in resolving the nuclear issue, and relations between the two countries are based on mutual trust, with both sides insisting on maintaining these favorable relations," Baghaei said at a briefing.

He also stressed that Iran’s position had been conveyed to Putin at the summit in Turkmenistan ahead of his conversation with Trump.

The United States and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28. In June, Washington and Tehran signed the memorandum of understanding providing for an immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including in Lebanon. However, overnight on July 8, the United States resumed large-scale strikes against Iran, accusing Tehran of violating the agreements regarding the Strait of Hormuz. The US administration subsequently signaled, in effect, that it was ending the use of large-scale military force against Iran and shifting toward an attempt to economically strangle the country through sanctions. On October 10, the US president did not rule out the possibility of further strikes against the Islamic Republic.