“The three countries emphasized that relevant parties should be committed to addressing the root cause of the current situation and abandoning sanction, pressure, or threat of force,” they said in a joint statement shared by China’s foreign ministry.
They also ”reiterated that political and diplomatic engagement and dialogue based on the principle of mutual respect remains the only viable and practical option in this regard.”
The meeting, chaired by China's deputy foreign minister Ma Zhaoxu, included Iran's deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi and Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov.
“In this meeting, various issues were emphasized, including the necessity of ending illegal unilateral sanctions, the importance of diplomatic solutions and dialogue to resolve issues, and the need to abandon the policy of imposing sanctions, pressure, and the threat of the use of force,” Gharibabadi said, IRNA reported.
“Any negotiations and dialogues will be merely a concern for the nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions,” he added.
According to the joint statement, Beijing and Moscow welcomed Iran’s commitment to full compliance with its obligations under the Treaty on Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and its cooperation with the United Nations nuclear monitoring body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Tehran has threatened to leave the NPT. In December, Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesperson for the parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, said that Iran will consider dropping out of the treaty if UN Security Council sanctions are reimposed.
The US on Thursday introduced new sanctions targeting Iran’s oil minister and its trade with China.
“The Department of the Treasury is concurrently designating Iran’s Minister of Petroleum Mohsen Paknejad and several entities transporting Iranian oil to China, and will identify their vessels as blocked property,” read a statement from the US Department of State.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned the sanctions.
“The malicious actions of the US to disrupt Iran's economic and trade exchanges with other countries constitute a blatant violation of the fundamental principles and rules of international law and free trade,” Esmail Baghaei, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, said in a statement on Friday.
He added that Iran holds the US responsible for the consequences of its "illegitimate actions.
The new sanctions followed an overture from US President Donald Trump, who sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a bid to open nuclear negotiations. “If we have to go in militarily it’s going to be a terrible thing for them,” Trump told Fox Business in an interview last week.
Khamenei on Wednesday said that talks with the US would not lead to sanction relief and could further exacerbate the situation.
The UN Security Council held a closed door meeting on Wednesday to discuss Iran’s increased production of highly-enriched uranium.
Under a 2015 deal with world powers, Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for much-needed relief from crippling sanctions. The deal began unraveling in 2018 when Trump, during his first term, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and imposed biting sanctions on the Islamic republic, which in turn began escalating its nuclear enrichment efforts.
Soon after returning to power this year, Trump restored his “maximum pressure” policy that authorized sanctions with the goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon or expanding its missile program.
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