Russia's Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday discussed expanding regional cooperation to confront U.S. unilateral sanctions against the Persian country.
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During a meeting in Tehran, they called for establishing cooperation mechanisms with Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East.
Tehran and Moscow agreed to fight jointly against COVID-19 and boost bilateral economic activities through oil, energy, transportation, and nuclear companies.
Lavrov also called for more military cooperation in the region, especially as the UN Security Council's arms embargo on Iran ended in Oct. 2020.
Rouhani thanked Russia's support to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a multilateral nuclear deal that the U.S. abandoned in 2018.
"The world has concluded that the U.S. maximum pressure policy has failed. The only way for Washington to return to the nuclear deal is to lift sanctions against my country," he said.
Iran's leader also highlighted the dangers of supporting the Zionist regime in the Persian Gulf and accused Israel of orchestrating "nuclear terrorism".