UPDATE 1100 GMT: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov have also chatted about the July 2015 nuclear deal — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — two weeks before Donald Trump decides whether to continue the waiver of sweeping US sanctions.

Zarif said:

We are very pleased that Russia has been supporting Iran within international organizations in accordance with international law, particularly as far as the Iran nuclear deal is concerned, and we will continue cooperation in the future.

Taking into account the measures that might be taken and negative expectations concerning the behavior of some JCPOA members, our dialogue on this issue will be very useful, so we will continue dialogue and cooperation with Russia.


Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is in Moscow to discuss the Syrian conflict with Russian and Turkish counterparts.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said meetings would take place through Saturday, in the first discussion between Zarif, Russia’s Sergey Lavrov, and Turkey’s Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu since March 16.

Since then, pro-Assad forces — enabled by Russian airstrikes and assisted by chemical as well as conventional attacks — have completed the capture of the East Ghouta area near Syria. Breaking the “de-escalation zones” announced by Russia, Turkey, and Iran last year, the offensive killed more than 1,700 people, injured thousands, and displaced tens of thousands.

The Assad regime has said that it wants to pursue more offensives until it reclaims all of Syria. A likely target for its next operations are opposition areas in southern Syria, along the Jordanian border; however, that could risk a confrontation with Israel, which has periodically carried out airstrikes on Assad regime positions, killing Iranian personnel and disrupting transfer of missiles and weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

SeePolitical WorldView Podcast: Syria Special — Assad’s Chemical Attacks, the US-UK-France Strikes, and What Happens Now

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari met Bashar al-Assad in Damascus last week. No details were released of the discussions.