Iran Signs Agreement With Russia for 20 Million Tons of Essential Imports: Report

An Iranian flag in Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant during an official ceremony to kick-start works on a second reactor at the facility, in Bushehr, Iran, on Nov. 10, 2019. Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images

Iran’s government has signed an agreement with Russia for 20 million tons of essential goods imports, amid talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a local newspaper reported on March 20.

The agreement would allow Russia to export vegetable oil, wheat, barley, and corn to Iran, according to an Iran International report citing a website associated with the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Iran was concerned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would impede the trading of wheat and grain supplies, as both Russia and Ukraine are major suppliers. The agreement was signed during Iranian Agriculture Minister Javad Sadatinejad’s visit to Russia the previous week, the report noted, without mentioning the monetary value of the deal.

The agreement came following talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The Vienna negotiations had been paused after Russian demands threatened to torpedo the nuclear deal over Western sanctions imposed after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The 2015 Iran nuclear deal was formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which placed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018, and Tehran started violating its nuclear restrictions about a year later.

Josep Borell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, wrote in a March 11 Twitter post that talks to revive the nuclear deal had been paused because of “external factors.”

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh responded on social media, saying that the pause in the Vienna talks could be “a momentum for resolving any remaining issue” and that “no external factor will affect our joint will” to reach a collective agreement.

Iran has said that the United States lacked the “political will” to resolve several outstanding issues in the nuclear negotiations in Vienna. It has insisted that Washington remove human rights and terrorism-related sanctions, including those imposed in 2019 on its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Subsequently, on March 15, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow had received written guarantees from the United States that Ukraine-related sanctions wouldn’t affect trade with Iran within the framework of the nuclear deal.

“We have received written guarantees—they are included in the very text of the agreement on reviving the JCPOA. And in these texts, there is a reliable defense of all the projects provided for by the JCPOA and those activities—including the linking up of our companies and specialists,” Lavrov said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on March 16 that his meeting with Lavrov reassured him that “Russia remains on board for the final agreement in Vienna.”

“More than ever, ball is in U.S. court to provide the responses needed for a successful conclusion of the talks,” he wrote on Twitter.

Reuters contributed to this report.