Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif give a joint press conference following on May 8, 2019. Earlier that day, Tehran announced that it was suspending some of its nuclear commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Russia has been in diplomatic overdrive over the past two weeks following Iran's announcement that it was suspending some of its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Shortly after Tehran's JCPOA announcement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, during which Lavrov criticized the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal. Then following a May 14 meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the Russian city of Sochi, Lavrov expressed Russia's desire to keep the uptick in U.S.-Iranian tensions from escalating to a military conflict, but warned that such an outcome remained a possibility due to hard-line U.S. policies toward Iran.
