Qatar’s Foreign Minister Al Thani to meet Sergei Lavrov over hold on Iran nuclear deal

Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani will travel to Moscow on Sunday to meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. meeting is organised to hold talks to revive Iran nuclear deal stalled and Russia inved Ukraine.  Al Thani could also potentially meet with Russian President Vlimir Putin.

visit comes as Iranian nuclear talks hit a roblock after Russia demanded US guarantee that its partnership with Tehran won't be affected by sanctions on Moscow. 

On Saturday, Al Thani in person spoke to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on this matter. He furr aims to speak to Ukraine’s foreign minister before his visit to Moscow.  trip comes after his visits last week to France and Germany, where he discussed both Iranian deal known as JCPOA and war in Ukraine with his counterparts re. 

In a related update, in a move to pave way for greater military and commercial relations between US and Qatar, President Joe Biden designated Qatar as a key non-NATO ally of US. According to a statement from White House, President Biden said, “I hereby designate State of Qatar as a major Non-NATO Ally of United States for purposes of Act and Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.).” 

Iran nuclear talks

European Union’s foreign policy chief on Friday said talks over Iran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers have to be kept on hold blaming “external factors” for delay. This came as a plan that appeared imminent for United States to rejoin an accord it unilaterally withdrew from in 2018, and for Iran to again limit its rapidly vancing nuclear programme.

Following demand of Moscow to guarantee from Washington that new Western sanctions will not prevent Russia from tring with Iran, its invasion of Ukraine has hampered efforts to get an agreement across finish line. 

Earlier on March 5, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov h said, “We have asked our American counterparts, who rule roost here, to provide us with guarantees at least at level of secretary of state [that] current process launched by United States will by no means affect our right to free and full-fledged tring, economic, investment, military, and technical cooperation with Iran".

(Image: AP)