Iranian officials criticized Russian "interference" in the final stages of talks aimed at reviving Tehran's nuclear deal with major powers, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Monday.
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Talks to revive the 2015 pact have been mired in uncertainty following Russia's demands for a US guarantee that the sanctions it faces over the Ukraine conflict would not hurt its trade with Iran.
Moscow raised the potential stumbling block on Saturday, just as months of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington in Vienna appeared to be headed for agreement.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia wanted a written US guarantee that Russia's trade, investment and military-technical cooperation with Iran would not be hindered in any way by the sanctions.
Tasnim cited Iranian officials on Monday saying the Russian demands were aimed at securing its interests in other areas and were "not constructive."
By postponing the revival of the agreement and delaying Iran's return to the oil market, Russia was seeking to raise crude prices and increase its own energy revenue, the news agency said, without citing a source for that assessment.
Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani said on Monday negotiators were evaluating new components that had affected the talks in Vienna and seeking "creative ways" to restore the nuclear deal. Shamkhani said on Twitter Iran was adapting initiatives to accelerate an agreement.
"Vienna participants act & react based on interests and it's understandable," Shamkhani wrote. "Our interactions ... are also solely driven by our people's interests. Thus, we're assessing new elements that bear on the negotiations and will accordingly seek creative ways to expedite a solution," Shamkhani tweeted.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to dispel talk of obstacles to the nuclear deal, saying on Sunday that the sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine had nothing to do with it.
Russia's concerns about the impact of Western sanctions on its dealings with Iran follow a push by senior Iranian officials for deeper ties with Russia since the election of Iran's hardline president Ebrahim Raisi last year.
Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, has been calling for closer ties with Russia due to his deep mistrust of the United States.
Meanwhile, the state-owned, English-language Tehran Times newspaper on Monday published an article suggesting the draft nuclear deal in Vienna would allow Iran to "keep its advanced centrifuges and nuclear materials inside the country."
It's "a form of inherent guarantee to make sure that its nuclear program is fully reversible if the US reneged on its commitments again," the newspaper said, without providing a source for the information.
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