MOSCOW: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sent his foreign minister to Russia on Thursday with a letter for Russian President Vladimir Putin, aiming to shore up support from Moscow ahead of a second round of nuclear negotiations with the United States.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran with bombing and extending tariffs to third countries that buy its oil if Tehran does not come to an agreement with Washington over its disputed nuclear program. The United States has moved additional warplanes into the region.
The US and Iran held talks in Oman last weekend that both sides described as positive and constructive. Ahead of a second round of talks set to take place in Rome this weekend, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that Iran’s right to enrich uranium is not negotiable.
Russia, a longstanding ally of Tehran, plays a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the West as a veto-wielding UN Security Council member and a signatory to an earlier nuclear deal Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
“Regarding the nuclear issue, we always had close consultations with our friends China and Russia. Now it is a good opportunity to do so with Russian officials,” Araqchi told state TV. He said he was conveying a letter to Putin that discussed regional and bilateral issues.
Western powers say Iran is refining uranium to a high degree of fissile purity beyond what is justifiable for a civilian energy program and close to the level suitable for an atomic bomb. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and says it has a right to a civilian nuclear program.
Moscow has bought weapons from Iran for the war in Ukraine and signed a 20-year strategic partnership deal with Tehran earlier this year, although it did not include a mutual defense clause. The two countries were battlefield allies in Syria for years until their ally Bashar Assad was toppled in December.
Putin has kept on good terms with Khamenei as both Russia and Iran are cast as enemies by the West, but Moscow is keen not to trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
Russia has said that any military strike against Iran would be illegal and unacceptable. The Kremlin on Tuesday declined to comment when asked if Russia was ready to take control of Iran’s stocks of enriched uranium as part of a possible future nuclear deal between Iran and the United States.
Iranian foreign minister to discuss Iran-US nuclear talks during Moscow visit
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Iranian foreign minister to discuss Iran-US nuclear talks during Moscow visit
- The US and Iran held talks in Oman last weekend that both sides described as positive and constructive
- Russia, a longstanding ally of Tehran, plays a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the West as a veto-wielding UN Security Council member
Secrecy, mines and Israeli strikes complicate removal of Assad-era chemical weapons, says Syrian envoy
- Nevertheless, new authorities made significant progress in their work with Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, he tells UN Security Council
- Syrian authorities grant OPCW experts unrestricted access to 23 sites and since October have been hosting the organization’s longest continuous presence in the country
NEW YORK CITY: Syria’s envoy to the UN said on Thursday that secrecy surrounding the nation’s former chemical weapons program, security risks from land mines and other unexploded ordnance, and Israel’s targeting of suspected weapons sites continue to complicate his government’s efforts to eliminate Assad-era chemical weapons.
Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting about Syria’s chemical weapons, Ambassador Ibrahim Olabi said the nation’s new authorities had nevertheless made significant progress over the past year in their work with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Despite what he described as “major challenges,” Syria had moved the issue “from a stage of suspicion and manipulation to one of partnership with the OPCW,” he said, adding: “Syria has achieved a qualitative leap in its cooperation with the OPCW.”
This shift is reflected in recent decisions by the watchdog’s executive council and changing positions among its member states, Olabi noted.
Syria’s chemical weapons program has been under international scrutiny since the early years of the country’s civil war, when repeated chemical attacks killed or injured large numbers of civilians. The deadliest incident occurred in 2013 in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, when a sarin attack killed hundreds and triggered international efforts to dismantle the country’s chemical arsenal.
Olabi said the authorities that took over after President Bashar Assad and his regime were toppled in December 2024 were confronting what he called the “heavy legacy of the Assad era,” during which chemical weapons were widely used against civilians. He described the program as an inherited burden rather than a policy of the new government.
“The chemical file is a prime example of these inherited issues, issues of which we were victims,” he added.
Syrian authorities have granted OPCW experts unrestricted access during eight deployments that included visits to 23 sites, he said, and since October have been hosting what he described as the organization’s longest continuous presence in the country.
“This marks the beginning of a sustained presence of the OPCW in Syria,” Olabi added.
Adedeji Ebo, the UN’s deputy high representative for disarmament affairs, said OPCW teams visited 19 locations in Syria last year, four of them previously declared chemical weapons sites and 15 suspected locations, where they conducted interviews and collected samples in their attempts to determine the full scope of undeclared chemical weapons activity.
Some other sites are in dangerous areas, he added, which poses significant risks to both Syrian and international personnel.
“On-site destruction may be required where conditions prevent safe removal,” Ebo said, noting that a recent OPCW decision authorizing expedited on-site destruction of weapons marked a positive step forward.
He also highlighted the reestablishment of Syria’s National Authority for the OPCW and the watchdog’s current, continuous presence in Damascus.
Olabi said Syrian national teams had identified two sites containing empty cylinders previously used to store toxic chemicals and had immediately reported them to the OPCW. Syrian authorities also handed over about 6,000 documents relating to the former regime’s chemical weapons program, he added, and helped arrange interviews with 14 witnesses, including individuals who were involved with the program.
Syrian authorities were also cooperating with international investigators examining chemical attacks by Assad’s government, he said, and accountability and justice for the victims are priorities for the new authorities.
“Syria reiterates its determination to continue the efforts to close this chapter,” Olabi said, adding that there was “no place for chemical weapons in today’s world.”
