China’s Foreign Ministry announced that on Friday, it will host a meeting in Beijing between Russia and Iran to discuss “the nuclear question” in Iran. Both nations will send their respective deputy ministers of foreign affairs.
The relationship between Iran, Russia, and Ukraine has grown since the start of the Ukraine War in 2022. In January, both countries signed a strategic cooperation agreement.
Mao Ning announced at a Wednesday press conference that the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu will preside over this meeting.
This meeting followed a closed-door United Nations Security Council Meeting in New York on the same day. The focus of that meeting was Iran’s plans for increasing its stockpile of uranium near weapons grade.
Following reports that Russia agreed to help the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump reach out to Iran, Russia confirmed that Sergei Ryabkov, Deputy Foreign Minister, met Kazem Jalali, its Ambassador, to discuss international efforts against Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran has been denying for years its desire to build a nuke. But the U.N. nuclear agency IAEA recently warned that Iran was “dramatically” accelerating the enrichment process of Uranium to 60 percent purity. This is very close to the weapons-grade level of 90 %.
In 2016, Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs to the nuclear program.
In 2018, during Trump’s presidential term, Washington abandoned its nuclear plan while Iran began to back away from their nuclear commitments.
China stated that it supports Iran’s rights and called for a resumption of the Iranian nuclear talks immediately.
