Russia wants the arms embargo against Iran ended in the first stages of relief from international sanctions after a nuclear deal, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
“We have not found common ground on the issue of weapons embargo yet. But we will insist that canceling this embargo should be one of the first measures [of sanctions relief],” Ryabkov told reporters on Thursday from Vienna, where he was participating in talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of nations.
Moscow sees Iran as a major potential customer for its arms industry. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced April 13 that he was lifting the ban imposed in 2010 on the sale of advanced S-300 air-defense missiles to Iran, as a reward for Tehran’s willingness to limit its nuclear program in a framework of a deal announced April 2.
Russia and the United States are partners in the P5+1 along with Britain, France, Germany and China.
President Obama shrugged at the possibility of blocking the sale, but U.S. lawmakers saw Russia’s move as a betrayal. In an April 30 letter, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., and the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, asked Obama to use U.S. sanctions to block the sale.
Ryabkov’s position is likely to cause more problems for Obama with congressional Republicans, who already have argued that Russia cannot be trusted to help enforce any agreement.
