Putin eases ban on nuclear cooperation with Iran

“Nobody from outside should impose on the Syrian people any form of government of the state, and who personally should govern it”, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in televised remarks at talks with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Monday.

GECF members account for 42 percent of global gas output, 70 percent of global gas reserve, 40 percent of piped gas transfer, and 65 percent of global trade of Liquefied Natural Gas.

Under the nuclear agreement, Iran will modify the uranium enrichment cascades in Fordow, a once-secret facility built inside of a mountain on an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps base, in order to instead enrich non-fissile materials.

Russian Federation says it will help Iran’s export of enriched uranium and modification of nuclear facilities at Arak and Fordo.

Russian Federation lifted the ban in April this year, after its relations with the United States and Europe strained with the latter countries imposing economic sanctions on the former. Representatives from several Russian companies have held talks in Iran in the run-up to Putin’s visit and negotiations are continuing, Mehdi Sanaei, the Iranian ambassador to Russia, told Etemad.

Describing the meeting as “quite constructive”, a Kremlin spokesman said the two countries were against “external attempts to dictate scenarios of political settlement in Syria”.

The comments were a direct rebuff of repeated demands from the US, France, Britain and Saudi Arabia that President Bashar Al Assad should step down and play no future role in war-torn Syria. The two countries have been fighting on the same front since the uprising broke out in 2011.

“This threat should be neutralized wisely and with closer interaction…”

Attention is now focused on stopping Islamic State group jihadists, who a year ago took control of large parts of Syria and surged into Iraq, from breaching Assad’s defences and taking Damascus.

Russian Federation has been conducting intense air and missile strikes against Syrian rebels including so-called Islamic State (IS), while Iran has been helping Mr Assad’s forces on the ground.

Tehran and Moscow are the regional allies of the Assad government in Syria’s long-lasting conflict. Iran’s alleged commitment to maintain Assad in power is linked to the leadership’s concern that no other ruling figure will enable Iran in maintaining its influence in western Syria, preserving access to Lebanon to arm its military proxy, Hezbollah, and keeping in place its front against Israel.

On the eve of his visit to Tehran Putin signed into law a decree cancelling all restrictions on Russia’s cooperation with Iran in compliance with the joint comprehensive action plan for the Iranian nuclear program.